Wicked Witch

*walks in with shotgun, shoots John at point blank range* Evil. Evil! You horrible author *beats with a random household item* Cliffhanger.

Interesting chapter! Very sad, the poor People. They seemed such an amazing civilisation. I have one question - what are the Travelers? I am confused about what type of lifeform they are. Carbon based? Or are they gas beings, being from a gas giant?

Thanks for your review. It means a lot, I love your writing! You're most welcome to write about them! I get so many little things like this I never flesh out, so feel free to run with it however you want.

Thanks for the review! Glad you liked. Sometimes I just get little bursts of inspiration about an interesting concept and I like to create these type of things. Often this is also how I write about the settings to my worlds. Regarding mechanical, well that depends. Theoretically science today suggests naturally occurring metallic life is possible, hence the Oup. Some experiments by the University of Glasgow have managed to create primitive metal cells, but its still theory whether they could form DNA. If this happened, then they would operate similarly to organics when it comes to evolution. As for artificially created metal life, it would all depend on why they were created. For Von Neumann probes, they were created for the sole reason of replicating to investigate the universe in a cheap manner. Self replicating interstellar spaceships travelling throughout the universe at less than the speed of light. While it would take them hundreds of years to gain a foothold, once they did it'd be impossible to get rid of them. They are one of the scariest because it doesn't take much higher technology than Earth's present level to create them, and they can theoretically evolve infinitely faster than organic beings. One probe could become ten, ten become a hundred. If you are familiar with the Stargate series, the stargates were created using a similar contraption that simply ran around the universe building gates locally out of the materials at that location.

When a civilisation reaches the interstellar era, survival becomes a game of numbers. The faster a sapient race can reproduce, the more planets it can settle and the more resources at its fingertips. One of the ultimate forms of life then is mechanical. No time is needed to reach maturity once created, and every new unit can create an unlimited number of more. There is no need for binary sexes as used in most organic lifeforms, so only one individual is ever needed to recover the species. Mech

I'm loving Tantalus and your facts are very interesting! I do love sci-fi with lots of world building behind it.

Just to let you know, Chapter 7 has broken and the story skips straight to Chapter 8 with no buttons to go to the chapter either. You have to manually go to it via the dropbox.

*pulls out the flame thrower* These people are horrible. Death sentence would be to good for them, so I hope you have an inventive end for the assholes.

I look forward to reading more. This is a difficult topic, but it is always one that needs to be covered. I just hope for a happy ending for Avery.

I love this. Just found it but such a great story so far. I suck at reviews, so sorry I'm not much use, but I'm really enjoying this. The world you've created here seems quite interesting.

New Norfolk, TAS, Australia - Famous for its history, New Norfolk is one of the oldest towns in Tasmania. It's infamous insane asylum shut down in early the 2000s and is allegedly haunted to this day, while it also possesses famous oast houses and the oldest hotel in Australia. It is the seat of the Municipality of the Derwent Valley these days.

Eaglehawk Neck, TAS, Australia - The 'Key to the Peninsula', Eaglehawk is a small town on the Tasman peninsula in Tasmania. Located on a ithmus that blocks access to the larger peninsula, today Eaglehawk is primarily made up of holiday shacks and cabins set near the local beach. It's largest community is Doo Town, where every house has the word Doo in its name. It's major income is from fishing and tourism, with many coming to visit the local 'Blowhole' and the convict sites as it once acted as the location of the major local Garrison responsible for capturing convicts trying to escape from the prison further up the peninsula.

I'm loving these shorts. They are very cute and endearing, and I love how you're exploring Kayden's personality more. Kudos to you.

Really really sorry I've not got something out (or to my editor/beta reader yet ). I've had all these great ideas for things later in the story, so I now have a bunch of scenes that aren't going to be used for some time, and this chapter is still at about 40%. Plus I went and wrote myself a encyclopedia on the world, major species, politics and religion (something I intend to explore a lot, so I had to get all my plans straight.)

I came because of Cia. I'd been reading there work on another website, and wanted more like it, so googling around I stumbled onto this place and joined up, and I was immediately hooked when I went into chat and actually met Cia. That was like meeting a celebrity to me, so amazing. And then all the rest of the community welcomed me in, and I've been here ever since.

Favourite story on GA? Wow, now this is a hard question. There are so many amazing stories on here. I however have to settle on The Rider's Pride by DKStories. Something about it just moved me so much. The story is a fan fiction of Pern, which I haven't actually read I admit, but I just adored it. It is set in a scene of inevitability, a world doomed to be forever under attack. The main character is one of the many who fight to keep the equilibrium, breaking out of the traditional work of their father because that is their dream. Ultimately, he finds comrades, the love of his life and fights as he wanted to. Yet now it is no longer the shiny dream of war but the cruel reality. The story ends on a note that left me balling, because in some ways it was so perfect, and yet in others so tragic.

Exams are over, yay, and I'm working on chapter 5. A bit done so far, going to sit down and get to work tonight.

Thanks.

Prompt 320: Your town is suffering through the worst drought that it has ever known. It is going on two years without a single drop and nothing is growing. The once lush lawns and forests are dry kindling. The businesses have slowly closed and the town is looking like it might soon just vanish beneath the blowing dust. You might know a way to finally make it rain, but you know it will come at a cost. What do you have to do? ----------------- “Why should I help you, mortal?” I shivered under t

The video crackles before a blurry figure appears. “Damn … how does this thing work.” There is a crash and the sound of something clicking and the figure returns to the screen, more legible now. It is green and reptilian, vaguely humanoid. The owner of the figure leans into the lens and brushes off a smudge with a rag before sitting back on a pile of multi coloured pillows. He yawns, jaw cracking and pointed teeth glinting before he begins to speak. “Reactions are such curious things. Specific

Short pieces I wrote, whether bored or just got a cool idea. Primarily things I couldn't work out how to turn into a full story or lacked the time to do so and wanted to post anyway because I liked them.

This chapter is going to be quite big, so that is only a small slice this time around. It may be slow to come out however due to exams

Here is a sneak peak from chapter 5; The tale of the Emperors is one that is as old as our world. There had always been an Emperor until the Owl King ravaged Embracement and murdered the last descendant of the Holy Line. The Elves were the first Emperors, as us well known. Izar I founded the dynasty in the earliest eons of our world, the Age of Forgotten. If any details of when Izar lived were ever written down, they are long lost. He became little more than a myth in many ways by the time of the Age of Mages. Only the proof that Emperors still sat on the throne maintained the story in the collective conscious. The folk tales said Izar held immense power, wielding the most forbidden of magics, forms of power lost to the scholars of today. The Elf Lords crushed mankind under their heel, treating humanity as little more than slaves. Justifiable, some claim, for they say that then the God favoured Elfkind and Humankind was little more than degenerate idiots. Squalid fools, the records say, but who knows if that was truthful or no more than elven lies. Who can say why the God changed his mind about humanity. Some spin a tale of romance, say he fell in love with a human woman. Those critical of him say he just got bored and it was nothing more than a game, having the underdogs overthrow their celestial masters. Whatever is true, the Elf emperor was dragged from his throne by Olgast the Horrid and burned alive, the only way to murder such beings. Pyres burnt for a year as the blood soaked tyrant killed every elf he could lay his hands on. He quickly found however when he tried to possess the Pearl Throne for himself that elven blood was required. He, for a time, satisfied it by soaking the surface in the blood of sacrifices but eventually, the people grew weary. Olgast was not called horrid for his murder of elves, no - the people had cheered him on that bizarre crusade against them. It was once he was Emperor he earned that epithet. His cruel laws and iron fist meant he was assassinated just two years after he stole the throne. The people restored an elven lord to the throne, carefully brainwashing a surviving member of the Imperial Family to rule as a puppet and let them abuse the powers of the Pearl Throne. In this way, they built the 2nd Empire. But the 3rd Empire is where we shall begin our tale, in an age when the Pearl Throne had fallen, the Elves extinct. Humans had grown tired of even the pretense of Elves ruling and discarded the traditions, seeing no need for the Pearl Thrones power now their technology could raise fortresses and build metropolitan cities. Yet while I tell you of ancient times, I write this tale long after Empires have passed, looking back over the ages, living in the ruins of Embracement. I scavenge its libraries and archives to learn more about that ancient society that was destroyed so totally by the accursed hordes that the most horrid of warlocks summoned. If there was ever a more grievous loss to mankind, I know not of it. The ancient knowledge of Embracement and the Elves were burnt by foolish hands, daemons relishing in the sheer destruction that they brought. Such creatures truly only feed on hate and misery, and so the Owl King was most foolish summoning them. But that, my reader, is a tale not for me but for another scribe to write. Let us satisfy ourselves by compiling here the most complete collection of stories, tales and truths about the Silver Empire, the 3rd Imperial Realm and Last Empire. I present to you the Silver Tales. ~ Kensington Malton, Scribe of the King of Lavis

Hi Cannd. Thanks for your comments. I have to admit, some of that I haven't considered, but I am intending to explain lots more of that as it goes on. I hope I can give more details on it soon and fulfill some of your questions.