Ruinous Return - Send Off (for now)
Added 2024-10-10 14:46:26 +0000 UTCThank you for reading Ruinous Return!
THE DETAILS
This story has been an absolute blast to write and has consumed my free time from May of 2024 through August 2024. Basically, nonstop, four months of writing for (just a little under) 400k words.
I wrote more, but drafting, edits, and the like made me cut some of the content.
Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and interactions. This story has been just…wow, one of my favorite things to engage with. I would wake up from a dream about a scene, jump out of bed, and sit down to write.
When I say it consumed my free time, I mean it.
I truly do love the world that I’ve created, and I know that many of you love it too and have enjoyed seeing Lyn’s journey to godhood from your multitude of comments.
SHAMELESS REQUEST
If you feel so inclined, pop on over to Ruinous Return on Royal Road (link here) and provide a review with your honest opinions about the story. And I do mean honest opinions. Give it the rating you think it deserves. Even if it's negative - all feedback is welcome.
DETAILS ABOUT NEXT ARC
Go to the Book 3 - Blurb Vote! Choose the route I should take the next and final Arc of Lyn's story!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/book-3-blurb-115961787
FINAL SIGN OFF
You all have been amazing and I thank you so much for supporting me.
The 'likes' on the chapters, the comment engagement, the Discord camaraderie...I am truly blessed and thank you so much.
I would ask that even if you decide to disable the financial support...
(which, I get, if you were here for Ruinous Return, and you're not getting it anymore [for now], then why keep paying?)
...Remain a free member so you can participate in story-direction polls. Once I start writing Book 3, and making them available as I write (since I won't have a backlog as its not my 'active story'), you will be voting on directions every few chapters!
And, you'll want your voice heard.
Take care.
Regards and blessings,
SerasStreams Shimmersand – aka, Alex Econome
Comments
Thanks for the story! Just got Patreon today and finished the rest of the story in one go. Very happy to see everyone getting a happy ending :D The return to earth would be fun, though I agree a series of reactions or skips makes more sense given Lyns power level - and it's probably better than artificially trying to reduce her strenth or introducing new powerful being on earth out of nowhere. One fun thing is that, given the time dilation, all the heroes on earth will still be alive when the invasion happens - and seeing their reactions sound very fun.
SDCard
2024-10-12 00:56:13 +0000 UTCWell, I already did the math. 1,000 years for Lyn in Ghomar-time is only 208 days on Earth time (give or take a few hours). So if I wanted a 75-year Earth time-skip, for example? It would be a HUGE amount of time on Ghomar. And I can't just retcon the time dilation because then I invalidate a bunch of earlier info. So, great idea, but not quite feasible for the time skip aspect. HOWEVER, I did have an idea rolling through my head that the 'bridge' that is kept hidden between Ghomar and Earth is restarting Earth's own 'mana cycle', and that is awakening 'ancient powers'. Like, dormant entities that choose champions as they cannot affect the mortal realm (being stuck in that 'Ethereal' plane). Like, Zeus, for example, could be one of those 'ancient powers' that was locked away when SOMETHING caused Earth's mana to dry up. IDK its a thought. Lots of cool suggestions I've received on Patreon I'm mulling over as well.
Seras Streams
2024-10-10 17:45:28 +0000 UTCGlad you like! I also considered for opposition, there's that time-difference mechanic... What if all the people who got sent for rebirth on earth got a consolation prize in the form of whatever dungeon core they replaced when swapping one for themselves as a reward to Lyn for the assorted dungeons? And they got to Keep those... and live lives with secret magic powers... Then they died and those dungeon cores stayed on earth because the original entities they where made from, stuck in that Abyss? Well they're dead... So then you could potentially have generations of humans, a selection of the 15-ish that did not get to donate their core to Lyn while still alive, getting bonded to random humans being born and then they grow up with what are effectively superpowers.... Advance this by however many generations you feel like and the earth Lyn comes to liberate might look Very different from the earth we know today, saves you the political hot potatoes of having to detail real world countries and their leaders getting Lyn'd into submission ^^; But yeah... super heroes with powers, some with more seniority than others based on managing to stay alive as one of only 15 people on the planet with powers... and most people knowing that when one dies a new one gets born... The cores themselves might have changed too, since they have been the Only cores on the planet for all that time with no god or dungeons to keep them normalized. lots of potential for conflict and struggles as Lyn tries to make this less messy without trying to just steamroll things into submission herself due to the atrocious body count that will unavoidably bring.
Aclys
2024-10-10 17:36:16 +0000 UTC*writing down these ideas* love it! Good concept.
Seras Streams
2024-10-10 17:24:17 +0000 UTCIn regards to Lyn home tour of earth... I would suggest drawing inspiration from superman stories. The challenge for superman is almost never "catch the badguy", that part is relatively trivial. His challenge is making sure nobody dies, to save and keep safe as many people as possible without either burning himself out... he is no god after all (and even gods have limits) or making mankind rely on him to save them so much that they become dependent and unable to fend for themselves. Thus why he chose to be a symbol for hope, to inspire people by serving as an example rather than trying to literally lead or control people. Naturally Lyn is liable to be more willing to control things... but that's what makes her story different from a superman one. Still she faces similar challenges in the grand scheme of things. Heck, that could be a lead in... what if she tries finding people to make into champions by granting them magical powers, creating heroes who can lead by example and make the world a better place instead of trying to conquer the whole thing which, due to human nature, is going to get opposed simply because nobody is going to be willing to just bend the knee to what they perceive as an outsider. You could then give yourself a whole cast of new main/supporting characters, the heroes and their support in turn who can face challenges and even setbacks... with Lyn taking on a more overseeing role... like zordon to the power rangers.
Aclys
2024-10-10 17:20:42 +0000 UTCAn interesting idea I can consider. Still makes the drama part a bit difficult. It would definitely lean more towards fantasy kingdom builder.
Seras Streams
2024-10-10 15:27:04 +0000 UTCYou could have lyn create a mortal avatar to power her down, there's no risk because her divine self could make it's way over at any point to bail her out, but maybe she's made a game of it to try and accomplish her goals without divine intervention. Maybe she's sensed she's lost some of the mortal perspective and has grown distanced from mortal people and she wants to regain that.
Baseplate36
2024-10-10 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
