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Raven & Quill #6, vol. 2

The Meteor Crater and the Music of the Void:

Conflicting Calendars, Thermodynamic Magic, & Chapter 9

Fellow Worldsmiths,

How often do we let magic be "hand-wavy," or gloss over the logistical nightmare of how different cultures actually measure time?

In Raven & Quill Issue 6, I dive deep into the mechanics of Aithyris to address both of these issues, and I wanted to share some of that forge-labor with this community.

The Clocks of the Five Seas

If you've ever looked at the historical mess of the Julian and Gregorian calendars and thought, "I should do that to my characters," you'll understand "The Lag".

The ancient Shandaryn calendar of my setting uses a perfect 351-day solar year. But humanity couldn't leave the math alone. The trade-focused Therysians anchored their New Year to the Spring Equinox , while the traditional Vesprians anchored theirs to the Winter Solstice. The result? A predictable annual overlap where one nation is technically a full year behind the other for three months and a week. You can read the full mechanical breakdown in Calendars & Timekeeping.

The Somatic Economy & Thermodynamic Magic

I also touch on the physics of the "Shadow". Instead of treating darkness as just "bad lighting," I built it as an active endothermic vacuum. Because the medium of the Shadow is acoustically dead , moving a living soul through it creates intense "Friction of Identity". Magic isn't free; it's a zero-sum thermodynamic exchange.

The issue also features a personal journal entry about a recent lecture I attended, a fumbled question about entropy, and why the physical "connectedness" of the universe matters so much to the themes of my story.

If you enjoy deep-dive worldbuilding, strict causality models, and the emotional toll of the craft, you can read the full issue of

The Meteor Crater and the Music of the Void (and Chapter 9 )

I'd love to hear how you handle conflicting timekeeping or strict magical limits in your own worlds!

Shine Bright!

— VS

#Worldbuilding #FantasyFiction #MagicSystems #Lore #WritingCommunity #Aithyris #AmWritingFantasy

"Art is born from authentic intent to share a personal truth. The method of delivery is just the mailman."

Raven & Quill Issue #5 In this issue, I’m pulling back the curtain on the Saga of the Silver Blade to show the structural engineering beneath the metastory.

We’ve all been there. You spend forty hours a week pushing the "Sisyphus stone" of the day job—navigating a hamster wheel of UI updates and notifications—only to find that your creative spark is buried under the friction of reality. This week, I stopped running up that hill and started carving through it.

The Feature: Chapter 8 — "Hand of Sorrow"

The latest chapter is now live. Witness the moment Qianna Lockstone stops trying to be Iron (rigid and breakable) and chooses to be the Rust. It’s a dark, visceral ride into the "Architecture of Silence" and the price of survival in the Lorath Forest.

Whether you’re a writer, a worldbuilder, or a "previously blind" visionary finding your sight through new tools, this issue is a manifesto for the Architect in all of us.

Shine Bright,

—VS

www.sagaofthesilverblade.com

#Worldbuilding #SagaOfTheSilverBlade #WritingCommunity #DigitalCarving #DarkFantasy #Harmonism #WorldAnvil #IndieAuthor #LoreArchitecture

Happy New Year from the Saga!

We are kicking off 2026 with a fresh start: Raven & Quill, Volume 2, Issue #1 is live alongside Chapter 4: The Rising Tide .

While the plot moves forward at the Rosethorn Estate, the real work this week happened "under the hood" of the world bible. This issue focuses on tuning the engine of the universe to ensure the Saga sings in the right key.

Inside this week's issue:

• Refining the Resonance: I have standardized the "physics" of the Grand Composition. How does a Sentinel perceive the Song versus a Street Urchin? (And to settle the debate: No, Talathis is not a Cantor).
• Canonizing Vespria: A deep dive into the history of the Jewel of the West to ensure the casual historical mentions in the prose carry the weight of truth.
• Shandaryn Aging: Clarifying the mechanics of "Ascension" to explain the dynamic between the Torryaenen Twins.
• The Family Tree: A status update on the massive project to map the noble houses using InDesign.

I have also "retro-fitted" Chapters 1–3 to match these newly solidified laws of magic and tone. If you are new to the Saga, there has never been a better time to jump in!

Next Week: We leave the politics of Rosethorn and return to the coast of Alfirhavn.

Read the full Issue and Chapter 4 below!

Raven & Quill (vol. 2) #1

Refining the Resonance Link to Chapter 4: The Rising Tide

Shine Bright!

— VS

#WorldAnvil #Fantasy #MagicSystems #Worldbuilding #WritingCommunity #SagaOfTheSilverBlade #Lore #IndieAuthor

The Unseen Cords | Raven & Quill #5

December vanished like a ship slipping into the Vapor Shroud. One moment it was Thanksgiving, and we were launching the site; now, the holidays are half-gone. But looking back at the wake we’ve left behind—the launch of the Saga, the introduction of Krysaalis and Talathis, and now the complex web of Qianna Lockstone —it has been a monumental month.

In this week's issue:

Feature Focus: The Girl Who Sees Strings We step into the mind of Qianna, a character whose "magic" is less about spells and more about survival. She sees the world as a tangle of cords and wires—dissociating from reality to see the connections between people. Her chapter sits like Atlas in the background, quietly holding up the heavy lift of the Saga's lore.

The Architect’s Journal: Echoes of an Old Game Qianna is the first POV character directly inspired by a PC from the TTRPG campaigns that birthed this world. This issue is dedicated to the player who originally breathed life into her.

Read the full issue and Chapter 3 below!

Read Raven & Quill #5

Read Legend of the Silver Blade

Chapter 3: The Winter Inside

Keep shining.

— VS

#WorldAnvil #WorldEmber #Worldbuilding #DarkFantasy #WritingCommunity

#SagaOfTheSilverBlade #RavenAndQuill

Something new from me! After the Elves vs. Aliens showdown, I was reading the Discord chat, and Team Alien—specifically Demon Grey—was talking about using aliens for creativity. While I don’t yet have a full sci-fi or alien world, I wanted to explore a specific lens for the story; sometimes that sparks an idea.

I’ve put together a short outline, and here’s my first installment of Starlit Observations! It will be a duet-style tale, following Ven Solari, a Zephri observer, as he begins watching a human woman, Subject 7.3.9.2343—someone he calls Wildflower. What starts as a mission of observation soon becomes something far more personal.

Creative experiments make me happy, and who knows—maybe this will help me fully develop that other sci-fi setting I’ve been dreaming about. I hope you enjoy seeing where this story goes!

#SciFiStory #WritingCommunity #SpeculativeFiction #FantasyMeetsSciFi #Aliens