General questions about Errant Story!

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ErrantFan
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General questions about Errant Story!

Post by ErrantFan »

Hello! I started reading ES many years ago, sometime in the early 2000s. Something reminded me of it a few days ago, so I returned and binged the entire thing. What a ride - it still holds up as a great story, with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and deeply fascinating lore!

Consuming the entirety of ES in one sitting has put me into "Obsessed Fanboy Mode", and now I'm overflowing with questions:

I'm delighted to see that Poe is still active (Does Not Play Well With Others is fun, and his recent artwork is phenomenal), but I notice that he hasn't produced any grand, epic fantasy stories since Errant Story. Is Poe done with that type of story format? Is he no longer interested in long-form storytelling?

In the years that have passed since ES ended, has Poe ever expressed an interest in revisiting the ES world, or creating any more "long, epic adventure" stories? Has Poe ever announced any intention to write a sequel to ES? Actually, has Poe ever shared his thoughts on the comic as a whole? Is he satisfied with it? Does he regret it?

I'd like to know how Poe looks back on ES now in modern day, 10 years after it has ended. Does he miss the days of writing the comic, or did the experience teach him that he never wants to do anything like it ever again? I wonder if he plans to upload anything ES-related this upcoming March 19th, the 10-year anniversary of the series ending.

I have a lot of questions like "What happened to Exitialis?" "Where did the dwarves go?" "Why was Future Ian present in the white void sequence?" Normally, questions like those are "spoiler" territory, but if Poe is completely done with ES and doesn't intend to do anything further with it, then I suppose there isn't any point in keeping secrets anymore, and it should be okay for Poe to just reveal everything at this point.

I was especially intrigued by this illustration that was shared in July 24th, 2010: https://www.errantstory.com/?p=4888 A few minutes ago, I learned that, apparently, this was the protagonist of a book called "Errant Tales" that was released in 2011. I wonder what else I'm not aware of! Was there a plan to have an entire "Errant Story Expanded Universe"? How many of these side-story books were released? Do we know of any others that were in the works?

Poe has mentioned that the backstory of the dwarves was inspired by the Dwemer from Elder Scrolls, but has he ever explicitly stated whether or not Ellis was inspired by Nall from Lunar, or if Tsuirakushiti was inspired by Vane from Lunar? Knowing that Poe is a fellow Lunar fan would be a great treat!

The "Commentary Track" notes provide a lot of really fascinating insight and trivia! However, they stop halfway into Volume 2. Why did the rerun stop on November 12th, 2013? I wish there was a chance of it continuing...but, I understand if it would be impossible for Poe to continue commentating at this point, now that so many years have passed, and the information just isn't fresh in his mind anymore.

Has Poe ever made a tweet / forum post sharing some lore that we can't learn from just reading the comic? Has he ever uploaded all of his original concept art, allowing us to see early prototypes of Meji, Jon, etc? Actually, I wonder if Poe created design documents for ES, and would be willing to release them. It would be so fun to read through files detailing every continent in the world, the full history of all the nations, etc.

I realize that a lot of these questions are things that only Poe himself could answer. I've considered e-mailing him these questions directly, but I'm really afraid of being a pest. I worry that he has already answered these questions a million times, and is sick of hearing them. I don't want to come off as some annoying fanboy who can't let go of something that ended a decade ago. That's why I figured I'd ask here, first, so that I don't bug him for answers that I could have gotten just by visiting this forum.

Shifting gears for a minute here - is this forum the full extent of the Errant Story fan community? Message boards seem to be decreasing in popularity these days, with Discord replacing them as the primary way to interact with a community of fans. Is there an Errant Story Discord server, by any chance? If not, do you think one should be made?

P.S. - I see that there are some active roleplay and fanfiction threads in this forum. It's fantastic to see that sort of thing! In my younger years, when I wrote novel-length fanfics and roleplayed for many hours straight, I would have loved to participate...but these days, it's hard to find time in my schedule for those kinds of things. With that said, I heartily applaud anyone who is keeping the spirit of ES alive with RP and fanfics!
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Graybeard
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Re: General questions about Errant Story!

Post by Graybeard »

Thanks for the kind words; at least they felt kind to me, since I've written most of the fanfic and was a prime mover on Errant Road.

I'll respond to more of what you wrote when I have a better computer to do it from, but for right now, I just want to note that Errant Road is not played out. The most recent two threads, "Murder on the Majestic Otter" and "Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces", are STILL in business nearly 15 years after the game started, and just need one more player to revivify actively. The pace is as fast or as slow as players want it to be -- in other words, slow most of the time, unless something notable is happening. I think if you, or anyone else, wanted to get involved, it could surely be done.

If this sounds possible for you, shoot me a PM and I'll send you back some stuff to get oriented, as well as suggestions for a few NPCs you might "adopt" if you'd rather not created a new PC from scratch. Murder on the Majestic Otter was constructed specifically to make that possible, and also, so that you don't have to read the literally thousands (maybe TENS of thousands!) of Errant Road posts that went before it, to get a sense of what's going on. This has been an incredibly absorbing game, full of people who are creative and write well.
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Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
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ErrantFan
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Re: General questions about Errant Story!

Post by ErrantFan »

Oh, don't worry! While I was looking through the various sub-forums, it definitely didn't escape my notice that there was activity on Errant Road within the last few months, and fanfic activity within the last few weeks. It's just that I have negative amounts of free time right now - I'm way behind on my IRL responsibilities and obligations - and now would be a really bad time to try getting involved in any RPs, regardless of the flexible pace. (I do appreciate the offer, though, and I would be very interested in reading a summary of the story thus far!)
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