Lukas Sprehn

Oh this is VERY fun, thank you! I had a blast writing this! <3

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He was turning – mutating. Again.

The moment he’d woken up, it was so bad he already had a damn tail and three huge, clawed fingers and a carapace on his head. The meager clothes he had fallen asleep in, casual wear for moseying around on the ship, were all but in shreds.

John crashed out of bed in a panic, a guttural growl turning into a freakish hiss in his throat as he scrambled to his feet and toward the door. Why had he turned? He was taking the suppressants like they told him— this shouldn’t be happening, it couldn’t be happening.

First he found Rivers in the halls. Padding up behind him, John tried to speak, but all that came out was a wretched growl like something out of hell. Rivers turned, saw him, his eyes went wide— and he punched him. Maybe he had been aiming for his face, but it only came up to his ribs. Probably hurt him more than it hurt John, given his spiked carapace, but Rivers didn’t let it show.

Physically, anyway. John still cringed and recoiled, a decent amount of breath knocked from his lungs, but he still tried again to speak – but it still didn’t work.

“Get away from me!” Rivers shouted, kicking in his direction – it hit him in the knee, hard enough to make him snarl, but still not enough to do any real damage.

Then Rivers turned and ran. He took off down the halls, yelling for help. John ducked his head low and watched him go.

Next, John went to Henry. Henry would always help him – he was his best friend. Even when he couldn’t count on anyone else, for some reason he always knew he could count on Henry.

But when the door to Henry’s quarters slid open, Henry freaked out. Instantly. And of all things, he turned and hit John with a shoe he’d had in his hand. He hit him again and again, like he was trying to ward off some crazed killer. John put up an arm to block all the blows, blinking and giving off some kind of chittering purr instead of actual words.

“God, why do you always come to me!?” Henry shrieked, his voice a cracking mess of terror and hatred, dropping the shoe and retreating deeper into his room. “I hate it, I hate you!”

A horrid, deep, low moan like some giant dying animal filled the room, and it took a second before John realized that was him. He ducked his head even lower than before and turned, tail lashing in distress as he retreated back out into the hall.

Henry had never spoken to him that way before. Even in all their ribbing, even when they argued, even when they were shouting in each other’s faces about whatever, he’d never done anything like that.

In the hall, he found Andrea. But when he came up behind her and tried to speak, she whirled on him like someone ready for combat, a knife in her hand. And she cut him clean across the face, somehow piercing even the carapace – and he cried out, his voice a distorted sound like the roaring wail of a monster that had eaten a human still alive and screaming inside of it.

Then he woke up. Violently.

Jostling awake, he opened his eyes to find himself twisted in his own sweaty sheets. A tiny murring sort of noise alerted him to the presence of Henry’s black cat with her perfect white chest spot, who was in bed with him, her yellow eyes staring in alarm. His face stung a touch from where her claws had caught on his skin.

Slowly sitting up, John noticed the door to his room stood wide open. And Henry was there, dressed in his day-to-day uniform, apparently having barged into John’s room at some point while he was asleep.

“Sheesh, do you always flail around like some tortured movie character?” Henry sniped, snatching up his frightened cat and cradling her in his arms. The cat promptly started purring like a motor. “You scared her half to death. She was just trying to lick your face. If she scratched you it’s your fault.”

John didn’t speak. He swallowed loudly and sat up a little straighter – at least until he bent forward to bury his face in his hands.

“Um,” Henry started, but he hesitated the moment he did, shifting on the bed near him. “It’s not like you to oversleep, Atlas. You know we were supposed to be in a shuttle fifteen minutes ago. I thought you military types were always on time or you get bullwhipped or something.”

John didn’t move.

“Atlas,” Henry prompted again at length, “are… you okay?”

Finally, running his fingers through his eternally unruly hair of spikes, John sat up and took a deep breath, looking Henry in the face. And there was his best friend, staring at him in concern, curious cat in his arms.

Jenny was originally designed to be a shape-shifting superhero; her “pigtails” are rocket thrusters, and her entire body can morph and shift to create weapons. Given her standard appearance is more to look like a humanoid girl, it seems reasonable that that’s an appearance she chose, rather than her default, especially because we know she can modify her appearance however she likes, albeit restricted to her two base colors unless she gets a new paint-job.

Though her mother learns to be more supportive of her later on, Jenny was originally confined to house arrest save for doing her job, supposedly because the world around her wouldn’t accept her.

She is canonically six-foot-six, which is rather tall, though it seems the average height of humanity has also gone up. So it’s not too uncommon for other men to be taller than her, but she’s also taller than most people. She has so far only dated other men who are taller than her.

She gains two different disguises for looking human. The first one doesn’t pass at all, while the second passing one convinces her to behave like a normal human girl, whispering into her ear to not only look, but behave like a “normal” girl, even if it’s not in her best interests.

It’s evidently quite common for androids to be made from different base personality points- Kenny, a boy she dated for a little while, was a re-purposed dog robot, and still carried over some of his dog traits.

The two most popular girls in school specifically have it out for her, because she’s a robot “pretending” to be a girl.

I’d suspected Jenny was trans coded for a long time, but this scene was what had me 100% convinced. 

Prior to this episode Jenny had always treated Ms. Wakeman as her mother, always referring to her as “mom/mother”; which caused Wakeman to be mocked by her peers. Ms. Wakeman was typically cold towards Jenny, always referring to her as XJ9 (essentially Jenny’s deadname) and usually treating her as nothing more than a defence droid. But in this scene Ms. Wakeman is actually seeing Jenny in danger and rushes to protect her, finally calling her “my daughter” for the first time. As soon as she does, the pure joy and amazement in Jenny’s voice just makes my heart swell. 

Thicc crocodile 🐊🌈

It's NOW AVAILABLE!

For the fifth anniversary of my book Wulfgard: The Hunt Never Ends, you can now buy a hardcover edition from Amazon or my website store!

Find the links here, and be sure to select Hardcover as your purchase option on either site!

Amazon and my website (all copies will be signed!)

If you've never read The Hunt Never Ends, now is a great time to do so. It first released in 2020, on Halloween night. It's a fantastic spooky season read and even includes one directly Halloween-themed short story!

The hardcover is one of the prettiest books I've printed yet, in my opinion. It's just the right size at a little larger than 5x8, around the same size as the paperback edition, and it's a nice weight and size. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

But wait - there's more!

(I know; I like saying that, I'm sorry.)

If you order from my website shop anytime this fall, you'll get your order in a fun Halloween-themed mailer - if the order can fit! Not all my hardcovers can fit (hardcover Knightfall, for example), and I'm not sure paperback Knightfall will fit, either, but hey, a lot of orders will.

I recently shipped out this one…

So don't wait - grab a whole lot of fun Wulfgard books to read this Halloween and give them a try!

You should especially try out my book Knightfall, the first installment in The Prophecy of the Six series. It's my most ambitious work, my magnum opus, and means everything to me. The sequel is already underway, and if you've ever wondered how I - in all my ranting - would write about werewolves, you can find out by reading this series! Don't miss it!

Next up, I really want to talk about why Amazon reviews matter so much to indie authors like me...

My bestselling book by a wide margin is my thesis, The Werewolf: Past and Future: Lycanthropy's Lost History and Modern Devolution. This is both because it is an often-cited work on a niche subject and because it is one of my earliest-published books, but it's also because it has so many reviews and ratings on Amazon!

The more reviews and ratings a book has, the more Amazon puts it out there for everyone to see and easily find.

If you enjoy my books (and any other indie authors!), please do consider leaving reviews, or at least ratings, on Amazon!

I would appreciate it so much. It will help me more than I can ever tell you, and all my works are in desperate need of them, especially my Wulfgard publications - but, really, also my copy of Baring-Gould. Honestly, all of them.

Taking a moment to leave a rating and especially a review on a book on Amazon - whether you purchased it there or not - will help an indie author so much. It helps put their name out there and sell more copies, as potential readers want to hear from current readers like you!

So, please consider leaving me some ratings and/or reviews on my books over at Amazon.com. You can find my author page here for some quick links. (You can also find me on international Amazon sites!)

It would help me so much, and I'd love to see your thoughts out there in the world.

Note that Amazon reviews can be very picky, by the way! Be sure to write a thoughtful review (it doesn't have to be long) that has some level of specificity, so you don't get flagged as a wretched AI. Having product images (pictures of the book and/or the book on your e-reader) helps keep you from getting flagged.

That's all for now! The rest of this year will remain a lot of work, but my inspiration is high, I have a lot of exciting projects underway, and I will continue sharing updates as they come.

Expect a cover reveal very soon for my next fiction book, The Curse of Ankhu...

2. Jasmine knows Thaegan is active and dangerous and clearly has some supernatural ability

3. Barda knows Thaegan is a witch and witches can be killed by drawing even a drop of blood, suggesting both that there have been enough witches in history to have this be a tested and true method of killing a witch

4. Lief doesnt know anything

Then again, 1. Thaegans like a hundred years old at least so things might have changed, 2. We only know about two witches and both were clearly thought of very differently so knows how people thought of them generally, or even where the boundary between 'weird but whatever' supernatural and 'witch' supernatural lies, 3. It's not like everyone in deltora was in touch with each other so for all we know there isnt a uniform public opinion on witches.

It’s also fun to imagine that like, the critera of the general public about witches? Cause you’re right it could be DIFFERENT WHEREVER YOU GO. Like, in the Ruby territory, ya gotta be able to turn green. And in the Emerald territory you have to have the ability to affect the weather AND predict it.

Note how almost every use of the word witch or witchcraft is used in a hateful, spiteful, fearful and otherwise negative manner route all the books. But the words sorcerer and sorceress usually aren’t!

It seems that the people across the earth that Deltora is on often has superstition and fear of magic in general but this kind of wording is used far far far more in mentions of those two words than any other that relate to magic.

The difference between a witch and a sorceress depends on the specific fictional universe, but generally, even in folklore, witches are often portrayed as using magic through pacts with spirits or the natural world, while sorceresses are depicted as having a natural, inherent magical ability that they hone and use, sometimes from within. Perhaps Thaegan is in a sort of power-enhancing pact with the Shadow Lord that has made her into a witch. It also depends in regards to folklore, though and real beliefs about magic in magic religions, including very old ones. For a slew of different takes on the question, see this https://www.reddit.com/r/WitchesVsPatriarchy/comments/1je4oje/6_yo_asks_me_the_difference_between_a_witch_and_a/

But we are talking specifically about the world of Deltora and not any other thing here. So I shouldn’t get too sidetracked.

2. Jasmine knows Thaegan is active and dangerous and clearly has some supernatural ability

3. Barda knows Thaegan is a witch and witches can be killed by drawing even a drop of blood, suggesting both that there have been enough witches in history to have this be a tested and true method of killing a witch

4. Lief doesnt know anything

Then again, 1. Thaegans like a hundred years old at least so things might have changed, 2. We only know about two witches and both were clearly thought of very differently so knows how people thought of them generally, or even where the boundary between 'weird but whatever' supernatural and 'witch' supernatural lies, 3. It's not like everyone in deltora was in touch with each other so for all we know there isnt a uniform public opinion on witches.

The Deltora Book of Monsters also reiterate the idea that witches can die if their blood is drawn, though it states that "it is said" that it is a thing.

My own conclusion is that the term "witch" has historically and culturally usually referred to a special kind of sorceress that a regular sorceress can become, through dark magic, and that a cost for this great power comes with that change, in the form of their blood weakness. I think either it is the extensive use of dark magic that corrupts their body and mind and spirit, or it could be a sorcerer using specific spells on themselves to make themselves powerful, maybe dark ones. Or someone else’s casting them on them…? After all then when thinking was in the barrier mountains (or beyond them? We don’t know for sure if she was or wasn't), she encountered the Shadow Lord who increased her power to 10 times more powerful. This may have been what made her a witch.

And perhaps the term wizard is the male equivalent here? We only have one character who is ever referred to as a wizard and that is Fardeep when he was the Guardian, specifically in the Book of Monsters. However, Sholto also talked about wizards from fairy tales and and not in a way that is negative.

Also anytime the words sorcerer or sorceress are used throughout the books. It is usually either used in a neutral way to tell us that this person has magic or it talks positively about the characters and those terms are practically never in a negative way, at least not to the same capacity as the word “witch.” We did get stories in which the shadow Lord was referred to as a sorcerer of course.

06 - Layered

Lief went on. ‘Raising hatred of my heir is the perfect way to make me fear risking my life by attacking the Sister of the South.The guardian is a dangerous enemy—subtle, quick-thinking, and very clever.’

‘It is someone we all know and trust,’ Barda muttered.

The Sister of the South // Ch 9 The Yellow Notice

I get the feeling that Paff, whatever she did, hated being a cunning two-faced backstabber. She wanted only to be loved and appreciated by normal people like her own family, though perhaps she knew deep down that being a traitor could never make that happen. But she was so tangled up in her own misery and loneliness that she accepted the Shadow Lord’s offer. Yet her efforts made her all the more lonely, which forced her to be an even worse two-faced person and she got stuck in a reinforcing loop leading to her damnation and abandonment by both sides.

Animal or monster: Kree

I have never drawn a bird before and it shows :D

Is Kree the only character in Deltora Quest who kills a magic user? I don't know - Kirsten uses magic, but she's not killed by any of the major characters, neither is Paff or Rolf. Reeah is a magical creature, probably, but doesn't *use* magic, not in the way Theagan does. The piper on Auron probably was using magic, but Jasmine didn't kill him directly. (Please, do remind me if I'm forgetting someone.)

Therefore - from the main group, Kree is the only one who kills a magic user, and not only that, the magic user who previously murdered his family.

Roddacember, Day 1: Introduction

"Though many areas of the Shadowlands remain shrouded in mystery even today, the Shadow Arena is surprisingly well-documented. There are, of course, the myriad accounts of the survivors who were rescued from the Arena by King Lief in the first year of his reign, many of whom spoke in detail of the chilling nature of the Arena: the distant screams carried by the winds, the blood caked into the stone from years of battles, the laughter and jeers of the Shadow Lord's "guests" as they watched the fights. But their accounts suffer from the confusing and often self-contradictory nature that plagues all memories of those who undergo intense trauma, and historians have had difficulty drawing decisive conclusions from them.

Far more accurate accounts, darkly enough, come from the Enemy itself. The Shadow Lord employed at all times a small group of clerks--low-ranking Ols or human collaborators--to record the fights: the participants, the victors, the injuries and moves used. It's difficult to say why; perhaps for research purposes? Or maybe the records were only a reflection of Lord Malverlain's famous obsession with order and control. Either way, they provide an objective, almost clinical insight into the Arena that no other account does. Through this lens, we can observe history unfold as thousands of lives are lost.

In the records, we see the Vraals evolve from the humble Green Monsters, with 'kill rates' of 20-30%, to their final forms, where fatality was nearly assured no matter what enemy they fought. We can see the moment when Jarred, also known as Doom, referred to only as subject #57489, escapes confinement in a move that will change the course of Deltoran history.

Of especial note is a single fighter. The Shadow Lord's protégé, Paff, is mentioned repeatedly in the records. None of the other Guardians are seen in the books, but Paff was repeatedly featured in the Arena for reasons unknown. Perhaps to test the limits of the power Lord Malverlain had given her? Certainly, records of those who fought her in Del would seem to indicate that of all the Guardians, she was the most powerful.

Regardless of the reasons for her appearances, Paff is mentioned as a fighter twenty-seven times, pitted against everything from a Jalis warrior to a Vraal. Each entry marks her as the victor. And, it should be noted, each entry marks a 'kill'.

-Yzetli Sombrum,

First Royal Librarian

07 - Time

i dont have the bandwidth to elaborate today but i've had a headcanon that reeah's skeleton got preserved in the grey tide and then centuries in the future archaeologists dig around and they discover big snake??

Roddacember, Day 12: Relationship

yeah it's paff again, tf do you want

Okay, but hear me out the funniest relationship in the series that really isn't explored is Paff and Joseph. She's introduced as the pathetic shrinking violet trying desperately to please her beloved mentor while he can't stand her because she's not his darling son Ranesh

but in like, reality

11 - Food

ive had a dungeon meshi inspired deltora menu that i. forgot about.