#bardofsagon — Public Fediverse posts

I am so stressed about today being January 6th, that I haven't been able to finish Act I. But final edits ARE on Scene 3, so we're close.

At the end of Scene 2, you get Maxx waxing frustrated at U.S. politics from the POV of a FFXIV original character.

So please enjoy while I finish the rest! 💙

THE LINE

I will this night
In several posts upon his pad alight,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
Allag holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Kæsar’s ambition shall be glancèd at
And after this, let Kæsar seat him sure,
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

THE FOOTNOTE

This is all a very pretty way of saying, “I’mma do a social media misinformation campaign!” And I think we all have a lot to be grateful for that social media’s only just starting to be a thing for us. Pray for your players, though; they’ve gotten so good at misinformation, some of them elected a Spongebob Squarepants-shaped Roegadyn who dyes his marmot-fur toupee every Loporrit’s favorite color to be their head of state.

Humans are a problem in every multiverse, I swear.

#FFXIV #FFXIVRP #BardOfSagon #KeeperOfTheMoon #Shakespearean #IambicPentameter #Allag #CalamityJan6 #SocialMediaMisinformation #WritingCommunity #LiamMeriaMorvelet #WorldBuilding #OCRP

One more thing that I haven't been making clear enough! What I'm working on isn't just an adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

The work that I am making is titled Ĵwlŷs Kæsar: A FFXIV Tragedy and Annotary in Five Acts. Tragedy, yes. But it's also an "annotary." This work is by me, Ellis Arcwolf.

An annotary is usually a "found" document, a dry academic treatise, or a classic work (like, say, a fictional adaptation of a classical play that happens to be called "The Tragedy of Ĵwlŷs Kæsar" by Liam Meri'a Morvelet). It serves as the central keystone that justifies the presence of the notes.

Those notes (footnotes, annotations, margin doodles, whatever) are true narrative engine of an annotary. This is where the character's voice breaks through the formal constraints to provide personal anecdotes, biases, and emotional truth.

The notes within an annotary aren't just for the reader; they are often written by a specific character within the world, making the act of annotating part of the story itself.

A popular example of this narrative style, which is more often called "ergodic literature," is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. The "story" is a 999-line poem, but the real narrative is found in the increasingly unhinged side commentary by the diegetic editor.

So that's what I'm doing. That should explain it more clearly. 😊

#FFXIV #FFXIVWrite #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #ErgodicLiterature #Shakespeare #JuliusCaesar #Metafiction #TheTaperProject #BardOfSagon #Worldbuilding #AmWriting