MAGES ERRANT
by L. Itram and Ben Yackley
Main * Story * Setting * Cast * Illustrations * About * Forum
4/12/04

And thus our story ends.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with us all the way through, and to anyone who came in late but went back and read the beginning anyway. It's been a really incredible trip.

In a couple of days, we'd like to start up some overall plot and character discussion, along with a wine and cheese spread, over in the forum. Now that you've seen the whole story, does anything still not make sense? Are there any loose threads? And so on. We hope you'll stick around for that. You've been our beta audience and we'd like to hear your responses, be they good or bad. And, of course, you can always email us at comments@delyria.com .

For those who are eager for more news from Delyria, there is a worldbuilding notebook on Livejournal. Since this is a more free-form project (and since worldbuilding is what Ben does best) it should fit more easily around his work schedule without the annoying stops and delays Mages Errant and Spellshocked faced.

Again, thanks for being a part of Mages Errant.

- The Authors

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4/6/04 Our final update has been postponed a bit due to Lia's being hit with various deadlines and assignments. ETA is within the week; before next Tuesday, we promise. In the meantime, enjoy the first ever Delyria fanfic -- and drop by the forum to give the author some feedback!

3/16/04 Final 23.1 is finalized.

3/15/04 A provisional chapter 23 part 1. Final version (which may or may not differ significantly but will at least have a title) will appear Tuesday night.

3/11/04 The final chapter is divided into four parts which we'll be posting on a weekly basis (rather than on the normal schedule), starting with part 1 on Sunday evening. In the meantime, enjoy our redesigned Vadhans.

2/11/04 We now return to your regularly scheduled story, with (we hope) no further interruptions.

1/27/04 Music update time: I have the CDs printed. All I need to do is design the traycard and insert and get those printed out, and it'll all be ready to go. More news as it happens.

12/25/04

So here's the deal with the music - the CD is finished. I'm still not ready to start selling it yet, but I've got a master copy all put together and ready to hand off for final adjustments and duplication, so it's only a very short time before that project ends. Like Lia, I've been in the thick of graduate school applications (among other assorted sources of stress), so I haven't been able to devote as much attention to Delyria as it deserves. Still, I haven't completely forgotten about it; go ahead and download those free samples I linked to above. The full CD has 32 tracks and they fill the whole disc (I actually had to cut one or two to make room). As soon as I'm ready to sell these things, I'll let you know, both here and on the forums.

Sincerely,

Ben Yackley

Jindreth: Glass Breaks, Steel Tempers
Redstone Island: Between Two Lands
Luen's Theme: Crisis of Faith

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12/7/03

Hey folks,

You may have to wait a little bit longer for the end of Mages Errant. I have a graduate application due on the 15th and another mid-January. I'm reluctant to put the site in mothballs for two months, especially this close to the end of the story (for one thing, it's not fair to you guys), but as important as Mages Errant is, school comes first.

So here's a compromise:

The story is on-hold until February. However, there will be something in that space above roughly every fortnight. A sketch* or interlude essay or teaser or interpretive dance or ... any suggestions? It won't be Official Story, it might not even be Delyria related (if you'd specifically prefer it be, please do say so), it probably won't be on time, but it will be .. Something.

Though if you feel like taking a break until February**, we won't blame you.

Sincerely,
Lia <--- who is entirely to blame for this so direct flames here or here and not at Ben.

* The forumites have come up with a list of minor characters which need drawing (hint hint).

** If you want to be notified by email when the story starts up again, drop us a line at comments@delyria.com with 'Mages Errant Chapter 22 Update' or somesuch in the subject.

* * *

11/25/03 The conference/convention ate a week out of our schedule, so this update is visual rather than textual (are we allowed to call it a Dead Writer Day?)
* Mia and Reini in pen, by Lia (color version to follow eventually).
* Lukas Edgegrinder in pencil, by Ben Yackley. 11/11/03 Unfinished Business is finished, albeit a few hours late. Monday proved to be very busy for both of us.
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10/26/03 Sorry for the day's delay; once again, life happened. We're continuing with half-chapters now. Speaking of life, Ben will be attending Midwest Furfest next month. Further details, plans, plots etc will appear on our forum as they hatch.
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10/11/03: Go here if you missed the first half of the chapter.
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9/25/03:Today's update is only half a chapter. Life happens, and we felt this would be better than no update at all. Expect part 2 on the 11th.

In more important news... As you may have guessed, our adventure tale is drawing to a close. Mages Errant is expected to contain 23 chapters total, which should take us to the end of November. Life is seldom that simple, however, (as evidenced by today's half-chapter) so you can use the little 'chapters completed' counter to keep track of how far along the story is.

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9/11/03: As promised, Mages Errant resumes with Chapter 19. Thank you for your patience; we should be back on the normal schedule now. Readers who have lost track of the story thread may want to glance back at chapter 18. (The authors certainly had to.)
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8/25/03: As promised, update! Specifically, a new desktop picture to thank you for your patience. (If you haven't been patient, then thank you for not being impatient within our hearing ;) ) This one features full-color portraits of our heroes plus a collage of minor characters. We have a right-handed version for the convenience of Windows users (whose icons default to the left side of the screen) and a left-handed version for Macs (which do the opposite). If you're one of those people who put stuff all over the place ... well, you'd probably be covering up the picture anyway so take your pick. Artwork by Ben, coloring by Lia.

(Mac)
640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x960 1600x1200
(Windows)
640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x960 1600x1200

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7/25/03: Sorry to leave you hanging, but we've had to cancel this fortnight's update. I've been out of town and in the midst of a packing frenzy for the past four days and Ben was working on Spellshocked before that. We'll try to put up something neat for you at some point vaguely around the 11th but that's also Moving Weekend (or one of them) so we can't promise promptness.
The call for guest-art/writing is still on (deadline is still August 8th, details are still below) and all contributors will receive our undying gratitude, assuming we're still coherent enough at that point to express it.
-AM
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7/11/03:

Chapter 19 Delayed: It is with many apologies (and a few sketches) that we must announce the further delay of the much-awaited chapter 19. Ben (as mentioned on the Spellshocked page) will be moving out of town soon, as will Lia, and several other people close to the two of us (it's just that time of year) and everyone is attempting to coordinate schedules and vehicles. The story itself will resume on the 11th of September; in the meantime, we will be keeping you entertained with assorted miscellaneous things appearing on the 11th and 25th as usual.

Reader Creativity Requested:Because of all this sudden action, we need your help! (No, we're not asking for money.) We'd like some "reader interpretations" (i.e. "fan stuff") to help fill in the hiatus and save you from two straight months of our sketches. Anything from character portraits to comic-strips to haikus to ... well, you're creative people, you don't need us telling you what to do! Please don't send any stories featuring our protagonists, though, as we have plans -- and pasts -- for them already and would hate for your work to be obsolete in a few short months. Other fiction set in the world of Delyria is okay, though.

Contributors will, obviously, be given credit and a link to a homepage if they have one. This site is PG-and-under, but you didn't need us to remind you of that, did you?

Please send your work to submissions (at) delyria (dot) com after replacing (at) and (dot) with the appropriate symbols (attachments are fine if they're not huge - upload anything over about 500K to your own webspace and email us a link) Deadline is August 8th so we can put things together by the 11th, though anything received before July 20th just might be showcased along with our next update.

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6/25/03: Interlude 3 is up (less than a day late, but apologies nonetheless). Go check it out; it's all about spellcasting, and it's a little different than our previous Interludes.
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6/15/03: We need to sell just a little more merchandise at our Cafepress Store to make it over the minimum amount they want us to sell per month... If we don't make it over that minimum, we're considering closing the store. We've got Mages Errant merchandise featuring the brand-new significantly more stylish logo (and the old Mark Freid Spellshocked stuff is still there). Check it out (use the Store link above).
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6/12/03: Chapter 18 (title forthcoming) is here. Apologies for the delay. (According to my watch we're only technically half an hour late, but readers in other time zones may disagree.) -AM
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6/5/03: New logo and a new site design to match! Archives and art are in place; other sections are missing text. If anyone finds any links leading off into the void (apart from the 'store' one), let us know.
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5/18/03: Chapter 18 will appear on June 11th (not May 25th as expected). Ben has been working on Spellshocked and Lia has been working overtime; both anticipate another busy week to come. We're not neglecting you entirely, however -- there will be surprise filler posted on the 25th.
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5/8/03: As you've noticed, we're now at the new address. Due to certain Events which are distracting the authors, we haven't had time to polish up the new site so the links will take you to the appropriate pages back on spellshocked.com. Please bookmark/link/etc here, not there, as we will be moving them shortly. -AM
PS Don't get too used to this page layout.

Mages Errant (http://mages.delyria.com), its logo, all related text, stories and characters are copyright (c) 2002 by Benjamin Yackley and Lia Itram (save where otherwise noted). Text may not be altered in whole or in part or sold for fun or profit without explicit permission of the authors. Text may not be copied or redistributed without this statement.