Video Essays on The World and Chronicles of Darkness... What Would You Like To See?

For the past year and change I've been putting out regular episodes of the show Discussions of Darkness over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. However, while I've spent 27 episodes talking about the setting and giving advice for how to breathe life into it around your table, I recently got a bee in my bonnet over a particular topic. Rather than just holding forth in my traditional format where I talk to the camera, though, I wanted to do something a little special. A little different.

That was why I sat down, wrote out an actual script, and made a video essay entitled The Liminal Horror of Changeling: The Lost... and judging from the reaction some folks have had, this is a direction at least folks would like to see me take more in future releases.

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Where Would You Like Me To Explore Next?

While the video has just over 160 views at time of writing, there have also been a surprising amount of comments left both on the video itself, as well as on social media regarding it. The response has been pretty positive overall, and while I'm hoping the views keep climbing on the video, I did have a couple of other topics up my sleeve in the event the audience wanted to see more stuff in the same vein.

So, what can you look forward to if I expand some of this?

As a for instance...

One of the ideas I've been mentally combing through is something I'm tentatively titling, "The Problem With Pentex, And The Historical Figure That Could Fix It". As folks know, Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries is something I put a lot of work into, and while I was doing research for that supplement I went back through the canon origins for Pentex as an antagonist... and found that it only goes back to the 1800s. This seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon, where to us a century is a really long time, but in a setting as old as the World of Darkness, I feel this overlooks a lot of additional juice you could add into this antagonist. Which is why I'd like to go through capitalism as a force of evil (in the game, of course), its origin, some other mercantile atrocities that feel like they should have been added into Pentex's history, and finally taking it back to a figure that I feel would make a truly bizarre addition to some of the historical persons that have become supernatural members of the setting.

Two of the other ideas, which are more in-line with the format of the first video (and may receive preference as a result of that), deal with viewing these particular games in ways we don't often think about, or which can fade into the background. For example, one video would be The Existential Horror of Vampire: The Requiem, and how the undead are largely left with no hard answers as to why they exist, what their purpose is, and how they're staring down the barrel of eternity... a condition that the human mind was never meant to grapple with. The second idea in this format is The Cosmic Horror of Mage: The Awakening. Given that the game brings many aspects of gnosticism into the setting, and it deals with the hubris of mages themselves, it can stretch the mind in directions it was never meant to go, and leave mages changed after their experiences. This can lead to them losing their humanity in ways that are very different from other characters in the setting... especially given how powerful mages can be, even in the throes of their madness.

What I Need From You, As Viewers

A lot of you know the drill by now, but if you don't it goes like this:

- Subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Hit the bell for extra points!

- Watch The Liminal Horror of Changeling: The Lost if you haven't. Leave comments and upvotes on it if you have! Bonus points for sharing the video on your own social media to boost the signal.

- Leave comments on this post (or on social media) regarding which topics you'd like to see me cover in future videos. If you'd like to see something other than one of the three options I mentioned, make sure to include that in your comment!

It's a simple, three-step process. The content I make (and which is accepted/put out by Azukail Games) is driven by you. Your views, your purchases, your likes, upvotes, comments, and follows all have an effect on what I work on, and what gets released... so use your power, raise your voice, and let me know what you want to see more of!

And, lastly, if you want to help me keep the lights on and the bills paid, consider grabbing some of my World/Chronicles of Darkness supplements from Storyteller's Vault! There's 36 of them at time of writing and (fingers crossed) I'll be able to add at least a few more to that list in the near future!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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