On the Shoulders of Titans

by Andrew Rowe

  Appendix III – Characters and Terms

  From Corin’s class notes

  House Cadence:

  Magnus Cadence – Head of House Cadence, father of Tristan and Corin Cadence. Presumably also the father of Sera Cadence.

  Laura Lyran – Head of House Lyran, mother of Tristan and Corin Cadence. Emerald-level attuned with the Swordmaster and Elementalist attunements. Member of Valia’s Council of Lords.

  Tristan Cadence – Elder son of Magnus Cadence and Laura Lyran. Disappeared into the Serpent Tower during his Judgment. Presumed deceased.

  Corin Cadence – Younger son of Magnus Cadence and Laura Lyran. Presumptive heir to both houses after Tristan’s disappearance. Earned an Enchanter attunement in the spire. Was given a mysterious new attunement by Katashi, the Visage of Valor.

  Sera Cadence – Previously known as Sera Shard, Sera Cadence was legitimized by Magnus Cadence after passing her Attunement exam. She is presumed to be a bastard child of Magnus Cadence. After being legitimized, she is now a potential heir to the house. She is the same age as Corin and has a Summoner attunement.

  University Staff:

  Chancellor Wallace – In charge of all university activities.

  Lieutenant Commander Jack Bennet – Vice Chancellor, former military commander.

  Professors:

  Professor Edlyn – Assisted with new student orientation. Teaches Enchanting class.

  Professor Ceridan – In charge of Tiger Class. Teaches Elementalists.

  Professor Lyras Orden – In charge of Serpent Class. Has a mysterious connection with The Voice of the Tower.

  Professor Vellum – Teaches classes on permanent enchantments. Serves as Corin’s mentor for most enchanting-related studies.

  Professor Conway – Teaches Attunements class.

  Lord Jonathan Teft – In charge of Hydra Class. Teaches dueling.

  Doctor Tordrin – In charge of Phoenix Class.

  Professor Meltlake – General Magic Theory class. Legendary Elementalist.

  Professor Vanway – Teacher for an unknown class. Not one of Corin’s professors.

  Sir Tanath – A member of the Soaring Wings, and a Summoner. One of Marissa’s teachers.

  Professor Vestan – Corin’s Introductory Runes teacher.

  Students:

  Patrick Wayland – One of Corin’s childhood friends, now his first retainer. An Elementalist and magical weapon enthusiast.

  Jin Dalen – A mysterious foreign student from East Edria with a Sunstone-level Mesmer attunement. His family is sworn to House Dalen, the former ruling house of East Edria from the days before it was under Edrian rule. He was badly injured after fighting against Corin in the Serpent Spire, but escaped using Corin’s return bell.

  Marissa Callahan – One of Corin’s classmates. Usually called “Mara” by her friends. Guardian.

  Roland Royce – One of Sera’s friends, former friend of Tristan’s.

  Cecily Lambert – The younger sister of Yunika Lambert. One of Corin’s closest childhood companions.

  Curtis Maddock – Dorm chief for Corin’s dorm.

  Lisa Stone – Former classmate from Corin’s childhood.

  Jordan Jaldin – A second-year student that supervises one of the teams for the final exams.

  Katherine Winters – A second-year student that supervises Corin’s team for the final exams. Goes by Kathy.

  Other People:

  Lars Mantrake – Shopkeeper for the Climber’s Court, a magic item shop. As a former climber, he has many stories of the spires, almost half of which are probably true.

  Keras Selyrian – Mysterious swordsman that Corin first encounters during his Judgment. Currently serving as Corin’s bodyguard in order to get into the good graces of Katashi, the Visage of Valor.

  Echion – Child with an unusual mark across his forehead. Corin first meets Echion during his Judgment.

  Vera Corrington – Tower explorer that Corin first encounters during his Judgment.

  Aloras Corrington – Automotive engineer. Vera’s brother.

  Derek Hartigan – Heir to House Hartigan, an ancient noble house. Has an Emerald-level Soulblade attunement.

  Tavare – Derek’s Summoned blade elemental.

  Delsys – Derek’s Summoned flame/wind elemental.

  Elora Theas – Heir to House Theas, an ancient noble house. Extremely powerful Summoner.

  Sheridan Theas – Elora Theas’ sibling, and a follower of Wydd. Wields the restricted “Necromancer” attunement, but specializes in healing. Derek usually refers to them by the nickname “Deni”.

  Vanniv – A summoned karvensi. Both Elora and Sera have contracts with Vanniv.

  Researcher – A knowledge elemental that resides in the restricted section of the Divinatory.

  Yunika Lambert – Cecily Lambert’s older sister, and Tristan’s former fiancée.

  Meredith Hawkins – A historical figure who supposedly escaped one of the spires after several years of being trapped inside. Commonly believed to be a con artist.

  Johannes Edington – An academic who attempted to enter a Judgment and stay inside as long as possible in order to preserve memories of what the rooms looked like. Emerged a few months later and published a paper on his findings.

  Visages:

  Katashi – Visage of Valor, patron Visage of Dalenos, where he is a central figure in their government.

  Melkyr – Visage of Resilience, patron Visage of Edria.

  Ferras – Visage of Creation, patron Visage of Caelford.

  Tenjin – Visage of Inspiration, patron Visage of Valia. Currently missing.

  Kerivas – Visage of Law, second patron Visage of Edria.

  Wydd – Visage of Forbidden Knowledge. Location unknown. Often depicted as a trickster or shapeshifter.

  God Beasts:

  Genbu, the God Tortoise – God Beast of Dalenos.

  Seiryu, the God Serpent – God Beast of Valia.

  Orochi , the God Hydra - God Beast of Edria.

  Byakko, the God Tiger - God Beast of Caelford.

  Suzaku, the God Phoenix – God Beast of East Edria.

  Arachne, the God Spider – God Beast of (????)

  God Beast Children:

  Mizuchi – Deadly serpent, called “Hero’s End”. Child of Seiryu. Believed to be virtually invulnerable.

  Other Powers:

  The Tyrant in Gold – A divine being that is antithetical to Selys, and believed to be comparable to her in power. The scriptures teach that he is in control of the entire world outside of Kaldwyn.

  Saffron – A child of the Tyrant in Gold. Tremendously powerful, most likely on a similar level to Mizuchi.

  Major Nations:

  Valia – Nation on the eastern coast of the continent of Kaldwyn. Home to the Serpent Tower and the Lorian Heights Academy.

  Edria – Imperialistic southern nation. Conquered Kelridge during the Six Years War and nearly conquered Valia as well.

  Caelford – Technologically advanced nation on the western coast of the continent. Allied with Valia.

  Dalenos – Theocracy; covers most of the northern side of the continent.

  Kelridge – A territory that was a part of Dalenos prior to the Six Years War. Conquered by Edria and now known as East Edria.

  Days of the Week:

  Orsay

  Kyrsday

  Wainsday

  Fersday

  Vasday

  Wyddsay

  Acknlowedgmenets

  The title of the first Arcane Ascension book, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, is a homage to Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

  The title of this book, On the Shoulders of Titans, is a reference to the quote, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” This is most famously attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, though variations of the quote predate him.

  In the context of this story, the quote is representing the generations of r
esearchers building from the knowledge of the past, ultimately resulting in developments like artificial attunements.

  Corin Cadence owes his existence to the “Cobalt Nightmares” role-playing game campaign by Bernard Hansel, Justin Green, Danielle Collins, and numerous other game masters and staff. While the Corin in this novel differs significantly from the character in that game world, playing “Corin Page” is what gave me the first hints of inspiration for this book.

  Similarly, Sera Shard/Sera Cadence was inspired by her analogue in Cobalt Nightmares, played by Jess Richards.

  Sir Tanath is a cameo for one of my readers, Charles DeGregorio. I hope my brief depiction honored his character.

  As always, my beta readers were essential in improving the quality of this manuscript. My beta readers included Sean Anderson, Ari Barzilai,

  Brittany Chhutani, Steven Ericksen, Ira Ham, Brian Heins, Jean, John Findlay, C.W. Fox, Jacob Fullmer, Gereon Hinz, Domagoj Kurmaić, Josh Kutterer, Rachel Noel, Jess Richards, Bruce Rowe, Christine Rowe, Jay Taylor, and Chris Zamora.

  Much of my inspiration for this work came from web serials such as Mother of Learning by nobody103, Worm by Wildbow, and Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky.

  Another layer of my inspiration came from JRPGs such as Final Fantasy, Tower of Druaga, Azure Dreams, Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals, Ys, and Bravely Default. In specific, the massive towers owe much of their existence to the earlier JRPGs on the list, and the idea of building a magic system around character classes was largely inspired by Bravely Default. While many earlier JRPGs had “job class” systems, Bravely Default worked character classes into their story — and that’s something I wanted to expand on further.

  I’d like to thank the many readers over on my blog for their encouragements and suggestions, especially during the period of time I was debating many title options.

  Finally, thanks to the community over on Reddit’s /r/fantasy, especially asuraemulator, Green0Photon, Jadeyard, and the other users that took the time to give me feedback on my earlier works.

  Similar Works

  I’m often asked for recommendations for books similar to Sufficiently Advanced Magic.

  If you’re looking for another magical school story with a protagonist that does a lot of research into how magic works, I would recommend the web serial Mother of Learning.

  If you’re looking for another book with a lot of anime-flavored combat scenes, I’d recommend the Cradle series by Will Wight.

  If you’re looking for more books with strong RPG inspiration, there are a couple up-and-coming genre labels to look for.

  “LitRPGs” tend to literally take place in a video game, or in a world that has overt RPG mechanics, such as character classes and levels. Some classic examples include the .Hack series and Dream Park by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. If you’re looking for one of these, I’d recommend Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko.

  There are a number of places to find great LitRPG recommendations. For example, there’s a large LitRPG Facebook group that can be found here. There is also a LitRPG subreddit, which can be found here.

  “GameLit” is a slightly broader genre that includes game inspired fiction in general. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline would be a good example of this.

  If you’re looking for an online community for more GameLit recommendations, you may want to look at GameLit Society group. There’s also a more general GameLit group. There’s also a GameLit subreddit, which can be found here.

  A Note From the Author

  The next Arcane Ascension book will be a side story/prequel from Keras’ perspective, as the end of this book implied.

  It will not be listed as Arcane Ascension Book 3, because it doesn’t come afterward chronologically. Instead, it will be listed as the first book of a new Keras-specific series. The current tentative book title is Six Sacred Swords. I don’t have a series title just yet.

  Six Sacred Swords will touch on story elements that are related to this story, like the Children of the Tyrant and the titular swords, but it takes place many years earlier and most of the cast will be different (aside from a few cameos and surprises). It will also be the book where we start to see major crossover elements from my War of Broken Mirrors, for those people who are reading my other series.

  If you liked reading about Keras in this book, I’d recommend checking out Six Sacred Swords when it comes out. If you’re not particularly interested in Keras, however, you should be fine to skip it and just wait for the next “main” Arcane Ascension book.

  Because Six Sacred Swords is next in this series, and I’m also going to be finishing the third book in the War of Broken Mirrors series before I even write that, it will most likely be at least two years before Arcane Ascension Book 3 comes out. (So, roughly March or April of 2020, possibly later.)

  That break will give me more time to come up with more awesome ideas, though, and I suspect it will end up being the best book in the series so far as a result. Maybe. Hopefully.

  Thank you all for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it!

  And if you’re interested in a little sneak peek at Six Sacred Swords?

  There’s one just ahead.

  Six Sacred Swords Preview Chapter – Legends Lost

  I’ve always had a complicated relationship with magic swords.

  There’s a magic sword at the very start of my personal story, but I’m not going to start right there. You wanted to know about how I’d encountered Dawnbringer, one of your six weapons of legend.

  That’s a much better story.

  Let me tell you about when I first came to your lovely continent of Kaldwyn.

  ***

  I woke in the Whispering Woods. I didn’t know the name at the time, of course, but I trust that you’ve probably heard of them.

  Most of it looked pretty standard as far as forests go, at least at first. Tall trees, occasional patches of high grass, a few mysterious blue flowers growing to the side of where I woke.

  Mist. Lots of mist. I could see a good twenty feet, though, so it didn’t add any particular sense of danger. The forest that I grew up in got misty at times, too.

  I pushed myself off the ground and wondered how in the name of the gods I’d gotten there.

  My head swam as I rose, teetering on my feet.

  My stomach grumbled.

  How long had I been out?

  I wiped the dirt from my hands on my tunic, then spent a moment just rubbing my temples. It didn’t help much, but my mind was clearing even if the pain wasn’t fading.

  When I opened my eyes, I scanned the area. I didn’t recognize my surroundings. The tree bark was a lighter shade of green than I was used to, almost as bright as the grass below.

  I really need to break the habit of letting old sages teleport me to strange places.

  I didn’t notice any immediate dangers, fortunately, and based on the disruption in the foliage I suspected I was on a path. The brush had been cleared in a broad enough swath that it said “human trail” rather than “animal trail” to my quick assessment, but I didn’t see any boot marks or other clear indications to confirm my hypothesis.

  No other people around. This was disconcerting, because my memory was gradually coming back, and I was not supposed to be alone.

  “You’re going to be sent to another continent. It will be unfamiliar to you, but you’ll find your way in time. You must meet with their goddess and bring her to join our cause. Without her help, we stand no chance against the threat that is to come.”

  That’s what the old sage had told us before he’d sent us away.

  Lesson One: Old sages will never tell you the full story.

  This one wasn’t even the particularly infuriating kind with all the riddles and vagueness.

  No, he’d just either omitted some key information or something had gone horribly wrong.

  I didn’t know which was worse.

  Either way, no friends nearby. I’d have to find t
hem later.

  At least I felt relatively intact. No horrifying teleportation damage to my person, at least as far as I could tell without a mirror.

  I checked my side. The sword was there, as it always was, and locked firmly in its scabbard.

  Good.

  Couldn’t let that thing escape. There was no telling what it would get up to if I wasn’t around to keep it reigned in.

  I still had my backpack on, too. I had been preparing for a journey to another land, even if I’d expected to show up somewhere a little bit more civilized.

  I checked my pack.

  I had most of the basics. A little bit of food, little bit of water, bandages, rope, mask of a long dead god, that sort of thing.

  I heard something crack behind me.

  I dropped my pack, spun, and drew my blade in a flash of unparalleled grace.

  The squirrel was unimpressed.

  I sighed, sheathing my weapon slowly to prevent any damage to the nearby terrain, and then picked my backpack back up.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have anything particularly breakable inside.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a tent with me, so I was going to need to find shelter pretty fast.

  I glanced left and right. I couldn’t see any clear signs of human traffic in either direction, nor could I hear the sounds of water, so I picked a direction at random.