Announcing: Blood Magic Season Three

Last year around this time, I was having doubts about whether I should do a second season of Blood Magic, much less a third.  The response to the first season had been lackluster to say the least, many of the episodes had been a struggle to write, and there was a significant opportunity cost to continuing to work on something that seemed to be a dud, instead of turning my focus to something that might be better received, like Fo’Fonas.  This year, I am pleased to say that I did not have any hesitations or reservations about continuing with the third (and final) season of Blood Magic.

Yes, you read that correctly: the third season will be the final season of Blood Magic.  After December 31^st, 2022, there will be no new Blood Magic episodes.  The story will be finished, and what comes after the finale will be up to the imagination of the reader.  I promise that this decision has nothing to do with the success or popularity of the series, and everything to do with how I plotted it.  Before I took Blood Magic live on the site, I wrote an outline for thirty six episodes, twelve episodes per season, and that was enough to resolve all of the arcs and plots that I wanted to include.

Season two actually has been more popular than season one, and the re-releases of season one have also been garnering good attention.  I intend to continue to release revised editions of the season two episodes concomitantly with season three, and might subsequently release revised editions of season three during 2023 – that depends a lot on how the writing for season three’s episodes goes, and if I have time to do revisions on them immediately, before they go live for the first time.  It would be ideal to be able to say it is completely finished at the end of 2022, but if some of season two’s drafting was anything to go by, that may not be realistic.

A lot is going to happen in season three, both to the characters, and to the world.  It will include the introduction of the one remaining major character who has not yet been seen: Chief Inventor Arval.  Our Prime will have to make decisions that could alter the very nature of the world in which our characters live.  The past and the present will come together to define the future.  Should I make any more vague promises as I try to make this sound exciting without giving major spoilers?

You can sometimes think of plotting a story as nested questions and answers (I’ve also heard this described as opening and closing parentheses).  Throughout season one and season two, we’ve mostly been asking questions, and offering only a few, or incomplete, answers.  Oftentimes what answers we did give actually led to more questions.  Season three does ask more questions, but they are starting to get towards answers, and by the end of the series, most of the major mysteries should be solved.  But that is not a promise that every question will be answered.  I’ve asked some questions and hinted at some things, especially about the history of Lufilna before the fall of Heart City, that intend to leave mysterious.  This is not cruelty, or because I am trying to leave my options open to write more Blood Magic in the future, but rather because they do not directly affect the main storylines.  I firmly believe it is a good thing to leave some elements of mystery open to the reader’s interpretation and imagination, even when a piece is complete.

I’ll be posting soon about what might come after Blood Magic, but there will be an announcement near this time next year when I formally announce what I will be working on once Blood Magic is finished.  It is worth noting that I am not precluding all possibility that I might one day return to the world of Blood Magic, perhaps with a standalone short story or novella, or even a full novel.  If I do that, it will likely be in the past, delving into one of the significant events that have been referenced.  Perhaps the creation of the Blood Empire, or the fall of Heart City.  However, I do not intend to write more about Kiluron and Doil once the series is finished, and I will be moving to something new after this is done.

Stay tuned for what will be coming after Blood Magic, but more importantly, stay tuned for the third and final season.  Episodes will start going live at the end of January, one per month, just as they have for the last two years.  I am very excited to make this announcement, and I hope that you will join me for one last season of Blood Magic.