Meta-Review - Analysis and Thoughts

~10 September 2025~ I probably won't finish this until tomorrow, since I'm taking a lazy day (days) off from writing. Arc 1 -- to me -- felt way fucking longer than I had envisioned, and I need to recharge before tackling the next Arc; which will likely be 1.5 if I feel up to it.       Anyway, this first part is going to be a comparison of my notes before writing the Arc 1 and the finished draft. Once again, let me pull up my fan fiction document. Oh, it says Arc 2 in the notes because I didn't plan to make Arc 1 into the Prologue Arc. Quote: ~Arc 2~ It begins with the stagnation of the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and Pruflas’ frustration The division grows as the beginnings of the Ars Goetia play out, and the power shifts between the former and latter The civil war is great and terrible, with Pruflas losing all his standing In the end, it is all for naught as Lucifer and his retinue in Binsfield’s classification sunders nearly all the demons and reforms Hell into the 7 rings of Sin ~Heirarchy~ • King of Hell       I Bael             ▪ 66 legions, invisibility • Princes of Hell       I Pruflas, firstborn             ▪ Duke, archmage of hell       II Ipes, second             ▪ Count, 36 legions, master of presience and leadership       III Sytry, third             ▪ 60 legions, master of lust arts (hetero emphasis), griffon-winged       IV Gaap, fourth             ▪ President, 66 legions, power of subterfuge – invisibility, wisdom, familiar-stealing, short teleportation, making men stupid – is a cardinal of the west       V Orobas, fifth             ▪ 20 legions, power of domination and presience; is truthful to the humble       VI Stolas, sixth             ▪ 26 legions, astronomer, herbalist, and lapidary; divination King, Duke, Prince, Marquis, Count, Earl, Knight, President Born during the 2nd arc:       • Vassago, seventh             I. Angelic, presient, and good natured       • Seir, eighth             I. Teleportation, naturally good, but indifferent to evil ~9 rings~ Limbo Lust Gluttony Greed Wrath City of Dis Heresy Violence Fraud Treachery ~7 sins~ Lust – Asmodeus Gluttony – Beelzebub Greed – Mammon Sloth – Belphegor Wrath – Satan Envy – Leviathan Pride – Lucifer ~Arc 2 brainstorm~ Goetia is demon magic, Theurgia is spirit magic, Thaumaturgia is practical magic, Magia Naturalis is divination – usage of nature in magic rituals. As for the time period, after harrowing of Christ, before the Divine Comedy. The nine rings are more resplendent than in Inferno. Ars Goetia is written around 1570. The war in heaven is what created the conditions of Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. The demons of the 7 deadly sins do not exist at the start. The katabasis of mythology has happened, except crucially Inferno, placing us before 1308. This provides an in for the witcher (takes place 1100-1280s). Pruflas needed to get to the surface world, and we can put him topside a lot earlier; and have him evade for centuries. 950-1272: Witcher games and points where Pruflas enters and exits The Witcher Luciferus Phosphoros, the Heosphoros of day; and Hesperus Errantes of night, the first angel, the mightiest angel, the fallen, and prideful usurper. Satan Apollyon, the Abaddon is a different fallen and was the arbiter of God, now the wrathful destroyer. Firmly Pseudomonarchia Daemonum at the start, transitioning to both the Ars Goetia and the 7 deadly sin demons in the end. Pestilence, Deceit, War, Lust. Awakening order – Baal to Beelzebub, Mammon, Leviathan, Lucifer, Satan, Belphegor, Asmodeus ~Arc 2 flowchart post-Hell~ Pruflas and Metile emerge from Hell around 990s they enter a hunting arc assassin demons constantly her death is the catalyst for Pruflas to seek out the Order of Witchers at this point, the schools of Bear, Viper, and Manticore are established, with the Cat having set out but not yet running Arnaghad was the reason – attacking Rhys – see below Erland of Jarvik will be one of the central supporting characters – founder of Griffin have him leave just before the raid on Castle Morgraig The final witcher group leaves after the raid A tributary of the River Buina, named Gwenllech ends with Pruflas swearing vengeance on the Ars Goetia – essentially the catalyst for the entire rest of the story new years of the year 1000 Castle Morgraig is based off Château de Doué-la-Fontaine embedded in the Kestrel Mountains blocky and squared, fully built for purpose over form the Order of Witchers uses heavy armor – the first medallions depict Witcher’s eyes Arnaghad attacks Rhys, leading to the first fight between the Order and Arnaghad founding the Bear Ivar Evil-eye sees other worlds, getting so fixated, that a sect breaks away to found the Manticore Ivar tries to kill Arnaghad and founds the Viper The Spiral is the main way through the multiverses of the Witcher the Conjunction of the Spheres was the collapse of most of the ways between Have some explanation on the fragility of the Veil between worlds as a story beat this will become a theme especially in Warhammer Taliesin Bleddyn Yorath aep Lywelyn – the Gryphon – taught Erland The Witcher golden age ends in the 1160s after pogroms force many of the schools into destitution First generation 950s – 1000s; Second 1000s – 1160s; Third (Geralt) 1160s – 1230s ~Analysis~ We can see from the board of story beats that I had envisioned, I cut out a lot and didn't add too much. The main reason for that is a personal belief that Arc 1 goes on for too long, and I feel like the extra exposition doesn't actually add anything. Worse case scenario in my mind is having to either write Intermission fillers or a separate spin-off with this crap.       Some of it was stylistically cut, like removing both the final two sin Arch-demons and the assassination sub-plot. On a personal level I didn't include in the final explicit draft is that Sloth awoke after Pruflas left, which is why the demons became lazy in trying to kill the duke. Lust might play a part in Arc 1.5.       Other than that, I think I mostly got what I wanted into Arc 1. Like I said, anything I feel is too egregious of a plot hole I can either rectify in an Intermission or even side-story.       Let's move on to the initial plans for the next Arc 1.5 ~Next Steps~ I don't want to time-skip into Arc 2 for meta reasons. The whole meta theme of the story is that Vykan is a Perpetual, and so he literally lives through the ages to end up in Warhammer. None of the all-too-common 'oh I isekai'd into Warhammer tee-hee' stuff.       Irony being people don't want to read that shit. Well, guess what? Neither does Vykan want to live it, and me thinking about it. lol       The biggest problem is calling back to my initial outline for the story. We need to get to China and Japan for Arc 2. And while Pruflas was in Europe in the middle ages, he does not end up there at the End of Arc 1. I'm still debating on how quite to go about it. But, a general idea is as follows:       Pruflas spends centuries trying to kill his brothers;       He's too weak, ani~ (Meatcanyon reference);       He ends up nearly dead in Night City in the early 2000's;       Meets -- is saved -- by Vykan;       They journey across America due to the Pacific being irradiated and bioweapons from US vs China (Fallout);       Blade runner for the wasteland, they find PIV in abandoned West-Tek facility, and Judge Dredd on East Coast;       Cross Atlantic into Europe;       Dying Light and THV (Vykan is now infected with THV, PIV, and needs to be saved by Pruflas using Witcher Trials);       End up in China;       Vykan is possessed by Pruflas, and is horrifically mutated beyond what is human;       Cultivation arc follows. ~Other thoughts~ I'm too tired at the moment to write, didn't sleep at all from insomnia. So I'm taking time off. Instead, let me autistically rant about Leto more. ~Other forms of presience in Dune~ One of the things in my Article on Leto II and the God Emperor in Warhammer was the focus solely on the subject matter. I did not extrapolate on other oracles at all.       So, to rectify that, let me go into a bit about the other forms of oracles in Dune, so we can better appreciate why exactly Paul and Leto II are considered so damn scary.       First point, essentially the only other notable prophets are the Guild Navigators and lesser extent Guild Representatives. The Reverend Mothers see into their past, not the future. In fact, Gaius Helen Mohiam, the first Reverend Mother in Dune -- she uses tarot cards. Yeah. That's her strongest future-sight.       The Navigators and Representatives see Paul as kind of like a mountain they can't see past. When they try to match up with him, all they see is a terrible future. Very linear.       Paul can see over the mountain, and into other valleys and hills. But he sees other oracles as impassable hills.       Leto, has a god's eye view of it all. Very appropriate.       So, in meta terms, what makes Paul and Leto II scary is that no one can see the future as well as they can. The implied thing being can they really see into the future? No one else can, so no one else can verify the authenticity of their fortune telling. The fear being when Paul gets his eyes burned into ash. He can 'see' exactly what everyone is doing around him with perfect accuracy. Because he 'sees' the world in his future-vision. All granted by the Spice.       Leto is much stronger, because his blood is the Spice Melange. Being a sandworm hybrid. No one in the rest of Dune has such Melange-rich blood.       Fuck, enough ranting. Let's light this candle.