OSAS Guild Guide (10/10) - The Witnesses - Will Wight, New York Times Best-Selling Author of 'Cradle'

OSAS Guild Guide (10/10) - The Witnesses

10/18/2014

The Witnesses:

I am proud to count myself among the honorable Guild of Witnesses, the final entry on this written tour of Imperial history. Witnesses are the official record-keepers of the Empire, having chronicled the entirety of the Empire’s history since our inception. We also observe momentous events, record battles, produce educational reading materials for the general public, and notarize official documents.

As Sadesthenes once said, “The Witnesses are the grease that allow the wheels of Empire to turn.”

Generally speaking, Witnesses travel in pairs:

As a Chronicler, I am a Reader with the ability to store my memories inside a special alchemically created candle. I burn the candle while I write, and as the memories flow out, I can record my thoughts without any margin of error even years after the events I have witnessed.

Always, I am accompanied by my Silent One, a trained warrior and my bodyguard. Silent Ones bind their mouths to symbolize their inability to betray secret or sensitive events, but contrary to popular belief, we do not remove their tongues. We’re not barbarians. They are capable of speech, they are simply discouraged from doing so in the presence of outsiders.

Guild Head: The Heads of my own Guild are the twin sisters Azea and Calazan Farstrider, natives of exotic Izyria. Though they are young, having risen to prominence after the Emperor’s untimely demise, I have never met anyone so dedicated to accuracy and neutrality. Azea works as a Chronicler, and Calazan as her attendant Silent One, though I can personally confirm that either sister can perform either role. Azea is a remarkable fighter in her own right, and Calazan a skilled Reader and clerk.

Symbol: the Quill and Candle

12 Comments

Mesmerizing Suggestion

10/19/2014 06:14:43 am

Ah. That explains who was writing the data entries. I was going to ask that if it wasn't explained in this last guild guide. But it was. Thank you for preemptively answering my question.

Will Wight link

10/19/2014 09:33:55 am

Mesmer, I do my best to anticipate your upcoming questions and answer them preemptively. It's a survival strategy I developed to survive naturally-occurring razor-sharp flying inquiries.

Elder III

10/19/2014 03:16:55 pm

I am ready to buy your new book the moment it shows up on Amazon.

On a separate note, have you ever wished to put your writing to use in a game setting (either video or board games)?

10/22/2014 12:53:57 am

Yeah, I've always thought that might be fun. I thought about making a sort of GM's guide for OSAS for my own use: not to actually run a game, but so that I could keep all the magic straight, consistent, and balanced.

And judging by the number of emails I've gotten on the topic, apparently several dozen people have taken their own stabs at making the Traveler's Gate system into a homebrew tabletop game. Which, to be completely honest, I'd love to play.

Alo

10/20/2014 09:20:32 am

Good, good....now that this is finished, the actual book reading can commence!

. . .
I feel like there was supposed to be an evil laugh there at the end, but for the life of me cannot think why.

That said, there have been few (new) books/series that have filled the space while waiting for this next one....

Jonathan Lautz

10/22/2014 12:33:15 am

What books/series have you been reading? I'm always looking for a new series.

10/22/2014 12:54:48 am

If you haven't read Brandon Sanderson's novella Sixth of Dusk yet, you should. It's a great, short, standalone read that is fun whether you've read any of his other books or not.

10/22/2014 07:46:35 am

Lots of things. The one I found most reminiscent of Mr Wight's Traveler's Gate series (in tone, not theme or storyline) was a book called Contractor by Andrew Ball. The main character reminded me a bit of Simon.

I agree with Will, Sanderson's Novels are amazing. Brent Weeks series of the Night Angel is fantastic. Rachel Aaron's Eli Monpress series is really very good as well.

I could go on, but that's a good small selection, and really I'm just here because my time machine won't go faster than 1x speed.

Rhys

10/24/2014 06:07:24 pm

Recently I've been reading Mercedes Lackey's fantastic heralds of Valdemar series. They're quite different in tone to Will books but still great. However most of my time has been taken up by a mod I got for my medieval 2 total war game. It is a total conversion mod which allows you to play total war in the lord of the rings setting. For those of you that like playing strategy games and/ or the lord of the rings, I can't recommend it enough.

Will M.

10/26/2014 07:06:14 am

I would suggest Drew Hayes' SuperPowereds and Corpies series. Both are fun reads and best of all they are free (http://www.drewhayesnovels.com/). But there are versions on Amazon available for purchase that have been cleaned up and expanded some. I would also suggest the "The Demon Accords" by John Conroe. These two (plus Will's of course) are my three favorite series available on Amazon.

Raymond

10/24/2014 03:37:39 am

Need this book. I know its not ready but is it already on editing or just a draft?

10/27/2014 07:11:05 am

It's about [REDACTED]% done, and it's more or less in a [CONFIDENTIAL] state. I'm confident that it will be out sometime between November and [REDACTED] of 20[XX].

I'd say more, but I think they're on to me.

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.