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On the Road to Elspar [Book 1] (Dryad Mercenary Schoolgirl Quest)

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Yeah, there's no reason not to split them.

SB... I'll echo the others and suggest that posting it there as a story might not be a bad idea to get more readers, but trying to run it as a quest would be a bad idea. Elsparian Road reads well as a story anyway.
 
I don't think I can support #1. Readers are already invested in Nieanne's development and having the prologue still ongoing while the Main story starts could make things confusing. Not to mention that votes form one could influence votes from the other, which in turn could lead to some pretty salty situations. Like if in her third year there's the option of training with a third weapon but readers go "well in the main quest she doesn't have a third weapon so we shouldn't bother voting for it" or "she has this as her third weapon in the main quest so that's the only option that matters".

I say finish the prologue first.
 
Kei said:
  • Having Neianne's story at Faulkren Academy be an independent quest. As most of you are aware, the quest is currently going through a three-storyarc in medias res, meaning that Neianne's days at Faulkren Academy are technically a prologue, and there is a "main" story that happens after she graduates. There are two major reasons motivating this decision. First, the "prologue" as it stands is only one-third done, yet has already reached a word count that is almost The Two Towers and The Return of the Kings combined, or the first three books of the Harry Potter heptalogy. Working on the "prologue" as an independent work allows me to give this entire trilogy of storyarcs more focus in a way that doesn't rush me towards trying to complete this so I can get onto the "main" story. (Of course, if you think this "prologue" is too bloated as is, this may be a problem.) The second reason the issue of accessibility. The quest as it currently stands is awkwardly formatted in the sense that it uses in medias res, and takes on a lot of tropes that doesn't quite make it conventional, which can be a turn-off for other readers. It is my hope, then, that I will be able to pick up a larger readership after the prologue, and that my chances of doing so would be increased if I simply started a new thread with a new title independent of the quest covering Neianne's academy days; that way, new readers may feel that a quest is more accessible without being intimidated by an existing three-digit page count. If enacted, I will probably rename this quest On the Road to Elspar.
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Given the clarification that this is just a matter of how the story will be structured later on, I don't see any reason this would be objectionable. There is technically some chance that you would lose readership by switching threads, but I think that is minimal and easily mitigated by ensuring a threadmarked/alert-spawning post pointing to the new thread is made.

(To be honest, I'm not too concerned about whether this quest is technically in "prologue" or not; what matters is the story, not the labels, and there's more than enough "stuff" happening to make "On the Road to Elspar" stand on its own as a story.)

Kei said:
  • Posting this quest on other forums such as SpaceBattles. This is, bluntly, a proposal that I personally feel very iffy about, and which I will not pursue unless there is broad support here. Yes, I would like a larger audience, and as things are, SpaceBattles is a larger forum, and there is potential in other online communities as well. However, the inclusion of a participating readership on another forum or platform creates logistical problems for those already participating. The simple problems includes the potential isolation of different threads of discussion, because there are certainly plenty of people who are either on one forum or another, not both. The more complicated problems, however, is a matter of questing culture. The inclusion of a distinct readership that has their own norms on what is or isn't "good choices" in quests may shift the dynamic of the aggregate vote at large, especially if the newcomers from this different culture outnumber my existing readership. As such, it is entirely understandable if you don't want this, and I don't want to alienate my existing readership just so I can maybe get a larger one.
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I think splitting the "active" questing is likely to be logistically challenging for you on top of the challenges you identify, so it may not be worth the effort necessarily. What may be better is posting the quest as a story elsewhere (which also allows sites less suited for the quest format), and linking to SV so interested readers can join the quest here.
 
I suggest just posting a story only thread there in SB as well. Adding a quest to two sites just makes the logistics conplicated and the voter base divided.
 
1. I have no issue with this. It's largely an exercise in bookkeeping for all that it serves as a narrative break. In some ways it's also finally an acknowledgement of the growth of this section of the Quest, so that's fine.

2. Heavily against duplicate full Quest threads. Admittedly another pet peeve, because split populations mean split discussions (nevermind issues with certain population dynamics) and complications for vote tabulation.

Now, if you completely lost your mind and wanted to run an entirely separate prologue or something with brand new chargen (or in a shared world or whatever), that'd be something else to go shove over to Spacebattles if you to try and tap a different population...but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
 
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Structural Change #2
  • Informational
    • Thank you, everyone, for your feedback. As a broad consensus seems to have formed over the past day, two major changes will now be instituted.

    1. This quest will now act as its own independent story, covering Neianne's years at Faulkren Academy. As such, this quest has been retitled On the Road to Elspar. Its sequel will not start until I have finished this quest.
    2. Story-only content will be posted at several other places, which thus far includes SpaceBattles and Royal Road. I will welcome any other suggestions as to where I can post this quest to gain wider exposure. As promised, I will not accept votes in any other location, and this thread will remain at the center of this quest, although I will redirect readers on other platforms to this thread.

    Thank you for your patience, advice, and support. Update coming soon.
     
  • Informational
    • Kei said:
    1. Story-only content will be posted at several other places, which thus far includes SpaceBattles and Royal Road. I will welcome any other suggestions as to where I can post this quest to gain wider exposure. As promised, I will not accept votes in any other location, and this thread will remain at the center of this quest, although I will redirect readers on other platforms to this thread.

    Thank you for your patience, advice, and support. Update coming soon.
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    Bah. You could at least have accepted votes on SB. That would have helped break some bandwagon issues.

    Apart from that, there's always QQ to post on.
     
    Lmao, and create new 'bandwagon' issues.

    There are no actual bandwagon issues, the votes tend to be pretty close with well-reasoned but passionate votes on both sides.

    For example, as much as I campaigned against the staff, I understood and could agree with the archetype. I was simply sadly on the other side of that fence.

    QQ can stay away though, lmao.
     
    angelofwhim said:
    there is a non lewd section over at QQ, that's.....a little inactive.
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    Well, yes. Kind of why I suggested it is because it always could use more activity.

    Apart from that? Dunno if you checked numbers but even if SV has more activity going, QQ actually has about 5k more members than SV, officially. Meaning more potential for viewers than SV.
     
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    Hm. Well, I kinda assumed you'd be making the post-academy stuff a new thread as a sequel thing, but I'm good with it. As for moving it across forums, I'd say no due to practical issues and cultural things. I myself mostly made an SV account due to several quests such as yours and Academia Nut's writings, as well as the decision to actually make it so that I didn't need to run through my bookmarks to see which quests updated.
     
    On the Road to Elspar is now being posted on SpaceBattles and Royal Road as part of a preliminary test case to see how well that works (because I already have accounts in and am familiar with both places). If things seem like they're working out well (and I'm still holding my breath), I'll look more seriously into other platforms recommended to me, such as Questionable Questing, Top Web Fiction, or anything else people may suggest. In the meantime, please feel free to support On the Road to Elspar on both SpaceBattles and Royal Road, if it is your inclination to generously do so.

    This is being accompanied by a line-by-line proofreading process, as well as minor edits here and there. The non-typo edits won't be major - mostly bringing my early updates in line with the vocabulary that I have eventually settled into - but there will be edits here and there that take into account the critical feedback that people have graciously offered over the course of this quest, as well as minor additions that I feel capture the story and setting more properly, now that I have a better understanding of what I'm doing compared to a two and a half years ago. If you've been following this quest until now, there's really no need to go back and see what's different; they're really just reinforcing things that I've already talked about throughout the quest. This will slow the rate at which I'm writing the next update, though, so please bear with me.

    As always, thank you for your patience and support. Working hard~ >_<
     
    Kei said:
    On the Road to Elspar is now being posted on SpaceBattles and Royal Road as part of a preliminary test case to see how well that works (because I already have accounts in and am familiar with both places). If things seem like they're working out well (and I'm still holding my breath), I'll look more seriously into other platforms recommended to me, such as Questionable Questing, Top Web Fiction, or anything else people may suggest. In the meantime, please feel free to support On the Road to Elspar on both SpaceBattles and Royal Road, if it is your inclination to generously do so.

    This is being accompanied by a line-by-line proofreading process, as well as minor edits here and there. The non-typo edits won't be major - mostly bringing my early updates in line with the vocabulary that I have eventually settled into - but there will be edits here and there that take into account the critical feedback that people have graciously offered over the course of this quest, as well as minor additions that I feel capture the story and setting more properly, now that I have a better understanding of what I'm doing compared to a two and a half years ago. If you've been following this quest until now, there's really no need to go back and see what's different; they're really just reinforcing things that I've already talked about throughout the quest. This will slow the rate at which I'm writing the next update, though, so please bear with me.

    As always, thank you for your patience and support. Working hard~ >_<
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    Yeah basically what Minxie said. You've probably already been recommended to it but I would see about putting stuff up on WordPress if you can. I'm not entirely sure on how WP advertises its content, beyond knowing it does and that the most popular stories on top web fiction are word press creations.
     
    Still reading (actually probably going to just say screw it and read the entire thread instead of just the threadmarks, it isn't that long really), but did want to drop one theory about Stephanie: she's a defector from a Tenereian child soldier program like the Caldrein mercenary one.

    Also I expect one of Teneria's moves, whether now or immediately post-war, to be offering its own soldiers out as mercenaries as one half of a strategy to cripple the only part of Caldrein's economy still functioning after the loss of Elspar and presumably the expulsion of most of its surviving population into the rest of the Confederacy as penniless refugees. The other half would be to punish anyone who does hire Caldreinian mercenaries by a combination of economic and diplomatic pressure as well as offering their own mercenaries at low or no cost to whoever's fighting against the side that violated the blockade on Caldreinian mercenaries. Or just outright invasion if the offender seems like a weak target ripe for looting.
     
    I'm definitely still keeping up, even if I usually don't have enough of an opinion to make a big ol' complicated vote plan.
     
    The Sandman said:
    presumably the expulsion of most of its surviving population into the rest of the Confederacy as penniless refugees.
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    That would completely destroy the productivity of the region probably for generations. It would also entirely cement the increasing view from the Caldrein populace that the Union are foreign invaders as opposed to of the same people but separated by political circumstances.

    Like, do you feel the Teneirans only want this territory and don't care about the people at all, or do you feel like they're serious about Caldrein and its populace being renegade parts of the same nation, which they wish to reintegrate?
     
    Gazetteer said:
    That would completely destroy the productivity of the region probably for generations. It would also entirely cement the increasing view from the Caldrein populace that the Union are foreign invaders as opposed to of the same people but separated by political circumstances.

    Like, do you feel the Teneirans only want this territory and don't care about the people at all, or do you feel like they're serious about Caldrein and its populace being renegade parts of the same nation, which they wish to reintegrate?
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    Kinda both, IMO. I expect the Teneirans will, once they take over, basically turn the locals into third or second class citizens who might, in small numbers, one day be worthy of some small consideration, but in the meantime they should be ruled by Tenerian-born administrators. It is a tough and thankless job, having absolute authority over your lessers for their own good, but someone has to do it.

    I'm admittedly basing this on how such things often went in real life, though. No evidence either way at the moment.
     
    Gazetteer said:
    That would completely destroy the productivity of the region probably for generations. It would also entirely cement the increasing view from the Caldrein populace that the Union are foreign invaders as opposed to of the same people but separated by political circumstances.

    Like, do you feel the Teneirans only want this territory and don't care about the people at all, or do you feel like they're serious about Caldrein and its populace being renegade parts of the same nation, which they wish to reintegrate?
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    I think they'll keep the ones who are useful to them, like the farmers, the miners, and whoever directly serves the occupation force. The urban population, the woodland dryads, anybody who was in a leadership position of any kind... getting expelled with nothing but the clothes on their backs is frankly the kinder option as far as what I expect to happen to them. More likely is re-education/labor camps followed by dispersal across the rest of the Empire to gut what would otherwise have been the core of an internal resistance movement as well as punishing ideological enemies.

    The fact that they view the Caldreinians as part of the same nation is likely to make things worse, not better, or at least it will for anyone who doesn't quickly switch over to acting more Tenereian than the Tenereians. Genuine foreigners, after all, can be expected to be recalcitrant and have odd ideas about how society should work. But if the Caldreinians really are the same people, that makes any of them who defy Tenereian ideology into traitors. (To make it clear, this is what I expect the Tenereians would think, not what I personally think).

    Also, as a practical matter, forcing refugees into the rump of Caldrein would be part of a strategy to exacerbate strains in Confederate society so that the Caldreinians are weaker when the Tenereians come back in a few years for round two. I don't for a moment believe that the peace treaty from the introduction will last longer than it takes for Tenereia to finish building up the necessary infrastructure in Elspar and spare enough troops from other fronts to renew the war and complete their little reconquista, at least not from what information is available to the readers in the threadmarks.

    EDIT: To compare it with your own quest, it's similar to the situation vis a vis the Holy and True Empires there, except the Tenereians don't seem to be under anything like the same handicaps as the Holy Empire in their ability to bring sufficient force to bear.
     
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