Announcing: Blood Magic Bonus Episode

I am excited to announce something that we have never done before: a bonus Blood Magic episode! We’ve done extra Blood Magic content before, like this letter to Borivat, the Merolate Charter, and the Blood Decrees, but we’ve never done a whole extra episode. Hopefully you will find it as worth reading as the mainline episodes.

To be honest, this episode happened kind of by accident. I had no plans for an extra episode in season three, or any other season. In fact, it was my expectation that no Blood Magic would be written outside of the three seasons that make up the main storyline. A Spiritual Journey, as I’ve titled this bonus episode, arose from what I discussed in this “behind the scene” post: I wanted to find a way to tell the story of Vere and Opal in the Spiritual Plane that I cut from Blood and Dragons.

To answer the logistical questions: yes, this story is “true” in the Blood Magic canon, it starts after the events of Blood and Dragons, ends a bit before the start of Balancing Act, and you do not need to read this bonus episode to understand and appreciate the events of the mainline episodes (although I certainly hope that you’ll read it, anyway). It is truly independent, a genuine bonus episode, happening alongside events of the mainline episodes. That’s why I decided to present the story like this, instead of sprinkling the composing scenes into episodes thirty-one to thirty-four. Oh, and I checked with IGC Legal, and this counts as one of our extra stories for the year.

I intend the episode to go live in November, after episode thirty-four goes live. That way, people who want to read this before the season finale, in roughly chronological order, as it were, will be able to do so. When I have a formalized date, I’ll post it on the site, and mention it in a weekly writing update. There will also be a release post, just like a normal episode, in which I talk more about the story itself.

As I said already, I’m really excited about this story, which is evidenced by the fact that it got written at all, since I generally seek a break from Blood Magic if I’m not actively writing a mainline episode. If I wasn’t ahead on Blood Magic, it still probably wouldn’t have happened, especially with my efforts on Verdon’s Tragedy, and another project which will be announced soon. There are all kinds of arguments we could have about whether doing something like this makes sense, but the fact remains that I think it’s a story worth telling, and I’m glad to be sharing it with you soon.