Imperium Ascendant

Chapter 29: The Beginning of the End

To all my readers, I come with the bad news we've feared. Imperium Ascendant will be going on an indefinite hiatus.

Over the last month and a half, I've tried to continue the story, to muster up the creative energy to continue this fanfiction I've spent four years of my life on. In doing so I found myself suffering, viewing this writing project as a chore and duty instead of a hobby. The excitement and passion I have had Is all but gone, and show little sign of returning. The last few weeks have been a time of weighing options and self-reflection. I'm no stranger to writer's block or creative slumps, but this feels different. It's hard to put this feeling into words but it's heartbreaking. I feel overly dramatic in saying this but I feel like I'm going through a breakup. The source of creative joy and a big part of my life is damaged and I don't know how to repair it. Ultimately I have decided it's not fair to leave you, the reader, hanging. Maybe the passion will come back, maybe this is just a dramatic overreaction of a dumb college kid. But leaving this story dead in the water, people wondering where things were going, and without answers. That does not feel right. I've been there, immersed in a story, and loving the world and creators the author has created. Just for it to be abandoned because of one reason or another. As I promised I will not let that be the end of IA. Over the next month or so I will be posting what could be best described as "Codex entries" on Story Arcs and plot points. With this post, I will be including six of them and I hope it makes this announcement bittersweet instead of just bitter.

I also feel an explanation and apology are warranted. For the past 5-6 years of my life, I have fallen in love with the world of Warhammer 40,000. It's a brilliant setting that combines much of my favorite concepts in both Sci-Fi and fantasy. The authors of the Black Library have breathed life into a universe I immersed myself in and found incredible. I've spent many nights pouring over the Lexicanum or WH40k wiki. Absorbing information and seeing connections that few others seemed to notice. My audible library is filled with Black Library books and I have put a truly embarrassing amount of hours into Total War: Warhammer. Hell, I had been considering starting a Custodes model collection but never got around to it. Ultimately I liked the product GW was selling and was happy to be a consumer. But I only learned of this universe and really delved into it thanks to Alfabusa and TTS. I'm part of the Warhammer Rennesisance that Alfa and his friends helped spark. Much of my early exposure to 40k was through fan works, some silly, some serious, some bad, others fantastic. To me, Warhammer seemed like a company taking lots of stuff they found "cool" from other sources and throwing it together. With the battle reports, and idea of "your dudes", this entire franchise is built around fans and their creations. Something I was happy to add to in my own small way. From writing the incredibly bad "Saga of the Devouring World" in a Warhammer FB group, to eventually finding Space Battles and trying out something larger. In being part of the Warhammer Rennesisance I thought GW had gotten with the program and realized the greatest asset they had was its devoted community. It seems that assumption was wrong and GW has revoked the implied consent of Fanworks.

It's embarrassing and feels stupid but the word that keeps going through my mind is "betrayal." All my time invested energy and passion cheapened by greed and shortsightedness. I know GW is a company and has a goal of being profitable, and this is their intellectual property. I'm not disputing that but what I am disputing is their choices. To me, it looks like a company with a brilliant bit of IP and a devoted fanbase is doing everything in its power to destroy both. To reuse the metaphor I've been a fan of. "I have no problem with GW keeping the Golden Goose for themselves. I have a problem with them turning it into shitty Goose Nuggets." I don't want to keep putting so much of myself into this, fearing the legal sword of Damocles, or just the companies own incompetent choices. I still in some way love 40k and the universe it shows. GW hasn't managed to kill my passion, but cripple it and negate it. So I'm left with the options of hoping that my passion heals, or directing in other directions. So far my original fiction has been fun to write and I hope people are enjoying "The Homunculus Knight." Ultimately I made this decision after this train of thought went through me.