It was finally time to go premium!
First, let me answer a few questions:
-About the Esoteric Cult-
Q: Does this book have Esoteric Cult elements? How many? Do I need to know the game "Esoteric Cult Simulator"? How much background knowledge do I need?
A: None at all. You can jump right in! In fact, if you have never encountered the "Esoteric Cult," you might get even more out of it.
This ties into a rather strange idea of mine.
-What is the essence of the Esoteric Cult? What should you write to come closer to it? The Hours, the Wood, the Principles, or the Histories?
I think it is none of those. The true core is the atmosphere of exploring the unknown alone.
I came to this city alone: my bewilderment, my ambition, my late nights spent poring over books in a frenzy, accompanied by lilting music, like a quiet poem.
I would gladly spend ten lifetimes here.
And that brings us to the first contradiction. Everything unknown is worth exploring, but now every Hour's name is up on Wikipedia, a few taps away.
You know everything about them. You have read every volume of Secret Histories. There is no room for anything unknown in this world.
And so something interesting happens: the more Esoteric Cult elements appear, the less mystery there is. The harder you work to describe the world of the Esoteric Cult, the more desperately you try to scale the high walls of reality, the less you can glimpse the Wood's true mystery.
We all know the reason:
-Nowhere has no walls.
If you cling to this, you will forever remain outside the walls.
So I took a different direction.
I rebuilt the entire world, devised a completely new power system, and even abandoned the