Woah I was looking for something to read at night but I found THIS AMAZING STORY!, i regret that I just find this now
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It opened?? Is there an update coming?
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Today is January 22nd
Three years ago, I posted the very first build of Spellbound.
About seven months later, I posted the last build of Spellbound.
It’s been almost two and half years since then. I want to say it doesn’t feel like that long, but actually, a lot of things have happened. I don’t think I have to list them out, unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock. Or a literal one, I suppose, though in that case, I’m surprised you have internet reception at all.
Anyway, suffice it to say, it’s been a long time since I made any real progress with this story. I think I remember providing some vague justifications for it back in the day, but honestly, I’m not really sure exactly why I stopped writing. It’s not that I lost interest in the story; it’s always been in the back of my mind.
Maybe I just burned myself out really hard or something. I dunno.
So the bad news, I guess, is that I can’t promise this sort of thing won’t happen again. I am, as always, a fickle person. Never expect consistency from me.
The good news is that my inconsistency can break bad status quos, too! Like Spellbound being on hiatus, which I think a lot of you probably suspected might last forever.
But if this story has taught us anything, I like to think it’s that things can still happen, even after 800 2.5 years of stagnation. You can consider that a moral of the story, officially endorsed by me, for when this game inevitably becomes a classic they teach to high schoolers in literature class.
TLDR: after a long (long) wait, the game has finally updated with Parts 3 and 4 of Chapter II! This finishes out the Runepoint story arc, and properly introduces the Promethean faction, as well as most of its members—including Flynn Rosenberg, the long-awaited secret RO!
It’s been a while, so I actually have a lot to talk about, if you’ll bear with me here.
Word count
Originally, this was supposed to just be one long part, but it actually got too long, so I split in two. How long, you ask?
Chapter II-3 is ~28,000 words long, which I think is actually longer than any other subchapter so far, just edging out Mem I-1 for the record. Chapter II-4 is a bit shorter at ~23,000 words; altogether, the update is over 50,000 words, which brings the word total for the entire game so far up to ~216,000 words (give or take a few hundred, since I general round to the thousandths place).
Fun fact: it’s been 878 days since the last update, which means that I wrote an average of ~58 words a day since the last update!
That’s not very much, for those of you who couldn’t tell.
But the probability of me doing better next time is pretty high!
Extracurricular material
One thing I would like to remind everyone of, since it’s been a long time, is that each update of this game comes with a hidden puzzle, and if all the puzzles are solved, their answers will combine together to give you a clue of the secret RO’s true identity!
My recollection is that this didn’t really generate that much discussion on the forums, but it got a bit of traction in the Discord server (which you can find a link to in the OP), if you’re interested in continuing that age-old mystery.
Changes to earlier chapters
A few minor-to-moderate changes have been made to earlier chapters. Most of it is pretty negligible clerical stuff that you won’t even notice, but here are a few things you might:
- By popular demand, a list of preset names have been added to the game (with two different sets if the MC chooses to have a different name in the past and present), instead of the game forcing you to type in your own. Most of these names were submitted by a handful of people on the Discord server.
- The school of magic previously known as Manipulation (also known as telekinesis) has been renamed to Direction, to avoid confusion with manipulation of the mind (which would be more like Apparition or Vexation). Technically I guess you could still confuse Direction for, like, directing people, but I think it has less of an immediate connotation.
- The two parts of the first flashback chapter have been renamed to “The Calm” and “The Storm” respectively. While I think the phrase “all the rest” works as a morbid refrain throughout part 2, it struck me as awkward and confusing to put as actual (sub)chapter name, particularly since it doesn’t really mean anything out of context. Since there’s literally a storm in part 2, I think the new names are pretty fitting both in the literal and proverbial sense.
- The infamous “blackberry tree” has been rebranded as a more botanically accurate mulberry tree. I encourage you all to do whatever you must to purge this shameful error from your memories.
- A few obscure variables and flags have been added to previous chapters. Most of you probably won’t notice, honestly, but this could affect some of your saves (particularly, if you had a poor relationship with Valerie but later apologized, which is now a thing she will remember you doing).
Saves
Other than the final point above, I don’t think there’s any particular reason old saves shouldn’t still mostly work, though there’s a non-zero chance that you will have lost your saves incidentally, if your browser cache was wiped anytime in the past few years.
With that said, even if you still have your years-old saves from before, after all this time, I think I’d probably suggest just starting fresh regardless, since I don’t imagine most of you actually remember what was going on unless you happened to play recently.
But that’s up to you. Just like in the game, sometimes you get to have choices in real life, too!
One last thing: please remember to use spoiler tags to discuss the events of this update, at least for a week or two! This is important because important (and IMO speculation-worthy) things actually do happen this update, and I’d like everyone to have the chance to experience it firsthand.
Anyway, hope you enjoy, and I will do my level best to not leave this game hanging for another two and a half years before the next update!
But no promises.
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Just wanted to say welcome back. 
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welcome back! cant wait to read this again! so happy to see an update.
havent gone to the new content yet but im ashamed to admit that im getting swept off my feet by cortez, idk if i like that
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oh god oh god.
Welcome back!!!
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Welcome back!! Can’t wait to see the update!
Also today is Lunar New Year, so technically you’ve continued your streak of updating on holidays 
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I am anxious to get time to read this. One of my favorite WiPs. 
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Aaaaaaaah 
You’re back! And with an update!
Kinda weird, I’m a bit teary eyed 
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-breaks out into a ghostly jig out of pure shock and delight- YOU’RE BACK!
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Glad to see you back and excited to start reading!
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Welcome back!!
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So excited this is back!
And even more excited that Charlotte has been confirmed as the secret RO!
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damn, that was quite a play
I have skimmed because I was in a rush, but I feel very bad for Felix. I can resonate academic pressures with this
Congratulations and welcome back @CorvusWitchcraft. This is a great news.
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Wait where does it say that?
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I’m so glad you’re back.
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Thanks for the warm (re-)reception, everyone!
Just as planned 
Don’t feel too bad for Felix. He may be down on his luck right now (and down in other respects by the end of the update), but he’s still a pretty terrible, sadistic person in his own right!
Which are, you know, aspects of him that you hopefully don’t relate to.
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