Lessons I've Learned From Video Games

Jade Empire by BioWare

I love BioWare video games. Way back at the beginning of the millennium a coworker convinced me get Baldur’s Gate and I’ve been hooked on BioWare ever since. My paranormal/fantasy books have been, to some extent, possible because of BioWare games.The way they tell a story and the characters they create have influenced me greatly.

Before BioWare, I played a series of games by Cyan called Myst. Again, the stories, characters and world were all so wonderfully portrayed I couldn't help but learn about world building from them. If you love amazing world building, I strongly recommend Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, and Myst: The Book of D'ni. All by Rand Miller.

I also recommend the books that accompany BioWare’s Dragon Age games. They, like the Myst books are available at Amazon. Just look for Dragon Age.

One BioWare game I rank in my top five of favorites is called Jade Empire. I love this game. I started replaying it just the other day and the beauty and philosophies still captivate me. I love Asian culture and architecture. Jade Empire is a meshing of all things Asian, not picking one culture individually. In reality, it’s a made-up fantasy world, but it catches the flavor of the Orient. One of the basic tenets of the game is that all things must be balanced. Good and evil must be in constant balance. One cannot exist without the other. Therefore for every good Celestial Being there must me an opposite evil.

I took this underlying theme and applied it to my new fantasy romance series, The Book of Neith. In this world, Sundara Spirits are countered by Shadow Spirits and one cannot exist without the other. But the spirits are only a guiding hand (for good or evil) in these books, the characters and the political atmosphere drive the stories.

The Book of Neith:

Dagon is a planet at the edge of the Universe and Neith its only known inhabited continent. Whether life exists elsewhere on Dagon is a mystery and it’ll take many Times of Change before it’s necessary to expand beyond Neith’s borders to find out.

Acantha, the seat of power for the Guidance of Twelve, is a territory near the center of Neith. To the southeast is Cronus and to the north, the Forest of Acantha. The Sea of Moons and Mist Hollow lie across the continent to the west. There are other, smaller villages and territories between, but most of Neith, as with all of Dagon, is rough terrain. It takes hard work to settle a new territory.

At the Start of Civilization when the races came together to form the first territory, Acantha was a place of wonder populated by elves, pixies, dragons, fairies and humans. Both magique and non-magique. From the Forest of Acantha came vampires, werewolves and the gypsy females selling their goods. It was an equal mix of technology and magique.

Early in the history of Neith, the Guidance of Twelve used the Forest as a penal colony. Murderers, rapist, and sociopaths were banished to its hostile depths. The Twelve touted to their opponents it was more humane than locking them away forever. They were showing responsibility to the citizens they ruled by removing dangerous elements; while at the same time, giving those convicted of crimes the opportunity to redeem themselves.

But the Forest was not humane. Some died quickly and some were turned into vampires and werewolves by the local creatures. Those ruthless few who managed to stay alive and human carved out a life. They were the males and females of magique.

Cronus is a wild, violent territory. Less civilized than Acantha but equal in technology and magique. They’ve been at war with Acantha for generations. If Cronus should happen to win the war, they’ll take over the Guidance of Twelve and rule Neith. A rule that’d be cruel, dictatorial and filled with black magique Shadow Followers.

A Vampire’s Tale, The Seer: Book One of The Book of Neith is coming to Kindle Unlimited.

Author's note: Once the series was finalized, The Book of Neith became the World of Dagon and the novellas are titled: The Vampire, The Seer and The Key. Also, the novellas are no longer available through Kindle Unlimited, but can still be purchased at Amazon for Kindle.

Happy reading!