I agree with the rest. Voting for your own story is pretty lame. I wonder if there is any way to prohibbit individuals from voting for their own story?
It is lame, scalenex takes the approach that this is a gentleman's comp and he doesn't want to overregulate our behaviour. My two cents is that this is exactly the right attitude from our keeper.
Story Twelve: Warlord of Sorrow by Lady Tor’til Llas (*cough*Tor'ti Llaz*cough*) Story Fifteen: Vengeance’s Fire by Spawning of Bob
I'm sure it's technically possible to rewrite the forum software to prohibit voting for your own piece but it's not worth the effort to implement. I believe Red Devil might be able to get a programmer to track who voted for what. That's a waste of time and/or money. So basically, we have to rely on the honor system. If you genuinely think your piece is one of the best, vote for it, but for the most part we have a norm that voting for your own piece is in bad form. The one time I was tempted to vote for myself was April-May 2016 which ended up in a three-way tie. I believed I was in the top tier but I knew my eternal rival Bob was not going to vote for himself so I didn't want to have my win tainted by an asterisk, even if only I knew about it.
Well, well, well. So that is who wrote what. Some of my suspicions were confirmed and only two of my wild guesses were wrong when it came to sleuthing out the authors. For the record, I give myself 5 points, because I knew it was really me who wrote my story. I just said... ... to put @thedarkfourth off the scent. Kudos to @Essmir and @Scalenex, who I would normally spot a mile off, for writing great tales and hiding their hands so effectively. (I think it was the way they swapped their usual typographical error rankings that put me off) And Sotek's Blessed Mark be upon @Kai-Otl, @Qupakoco, @Carnikang and @Wolfwerty33 for their welcome additions. I will be looking out for you next time. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. While you wait for the next story comp, why not check out the WIP thread for the next Lustria Online Art Competition? It will be stickied at the top of the Fluff Subforum by a moderator near you very soon.
Yay! Art Comp!! Speaking of which, I've been meaning to say a huge thank you to @Warden for your AMAZING illustration of my story! For the record, the daemon was inspired by the Stalk from "Saga", (except with tentacles instead of spider arms) ...which is a really great comic if you've not heard of it. However I've come to like Warden's version much better.
I can't make up mind between "Commune", "Warlord of Sorrow", and "Hammer of the Lost". All have the misery and death that defines the Scalenex Cup winners in the past.
Here goes some shameless advertising... If you liked my writing on here, you should check out the short story I recently put on Amazon. I know some of you have already and I really appreciate it. Hope you enjoy! US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MY3K77D UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MY3K77D Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MY3K77D Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01MY3K77D Don't forget to rate and review it!
Congrats @lordkingcrow for winning and thanks for participating to all the writers who entered, you made this competition very enjoyable. Lots of great new ideas to help expand the Lustrian Online universe. I am so glad you liked it! The moment I read this story I immediately had this image in my mind (particularily the dramatic moment when the creature raises one of the poor skinks above his head... I really enjoyed making this picture from my favorite stories from this competition and I hope I did your story justice! Spoiler The Stalk creature is very terrifying to look at, I definitely had a much more "cartoony" image in my mind. Still creepy, but not nearly as visceral or insectoid like the Saga. I have been meaning to check out that comic, I have seen some of the art before it looked interesting!
*Reappears half-dead and clutching sheets of parchment* Nearly there...so close... Story Ten: Jumpy! It took me a while to get the gist with the time jumps, but when I did I found them very rewarding. At least I think I got the gist. Hmmm. Anyway, I do have a soft spot for pov jumps, especially across time. It can be a bit marmitey and can be easy to mess up, but I think this story pulled it off nicely. Indeed, the daemon was terrifying. So much so that I’ve doubled the number of Warpfire Throw...I mean...Salamnders in my armoury just so I could kill such a thing with lots and lots of fire. Maybe dropping a moon on it...Will have to talk-squeak with Skryre... I’m not sure what I thought of Hutl who either was hilarious and fun to read or seemed a little odd fitting into this otherwise graphic and almost serious tale. I dunno, I think I liked him. The two skinks were definitely great though. R’ttig, a Vermin Lord: That daemon-thing spoke too much, far-far too confident that it would live-survive. Fool-thing, the simpler ways are the best...like slowly manipulating a race over hundreds of years so their thought-beliefs cause your chamber to manifest a nice warp-coffee machine...Actually, that’s a good-great idea! Story Eleven: Huh, that was a very different setting and take on this brave new world of AoS. I kinda like it. I did enjoy the exactingness of the ritual which stands to reason. I don’t think I’ve ever read a ritual that wasn’t executed with extreme precision to the point of insanity. Oh apart from that one time with Thanquol and a severed claw, but Thanquol’s both a complete idiot and hilariously overpowered. The protagonist was annoying, but I think that was the intention of the author, so I’m fine with that. The pacing felt pretty good and was filled with some very nice descriptions. But yeah, most of all I loved how breaking the rules caused such carnage. Stupid man-things. Mizzreek Gitfzk: Don’t worry-worry, Mizzreek can save-heal foolish man-things. Just-just a tincture of laudanum and a dash of...what-what are those ligh---- Story Twelve: Ok, in another life I was one of those fang-things, so it warms the cockles of my blackened ratty heart to see some necromancy in action. As a sequel for fireblade, I feel it did a stellar job at setting up for a future conflict between the original two characters. The descriptions in this piece were delicious and gave the story a lot of visual life. Pacing was on form and kept the piece interesting, though I left wanting more. Though that’s probably more a good thing than a bad one. I’m not sure there’s much else to comment on other than this was one of my favourite pieces in the compy. Necrilliach, a Necrarch: I wonder where the souls of these scaley creatures truly go. Do they re-enter the pools they spawn from or are consumed by thirsting gods? More research is needed...