Driven By Hate - A Druchii Blog

Ladies and gentlemen, druchii and goblins, ravens and orcs, you are cordially invited to peruse..



A collection of tales chronicling the exploits of Raucir Lustingclaw and the ill-favoured House Sathar.



So basically, I've been writing a lot lately, and what with the spotlight the other week and the positive and constructive feedback I've received for my posted Druchii Tales on The Grey Kabal's forum, I've decided to open up a seperate blog for the whole thing.

Obviously Raucir's tales are the focus of the collection (every aspiring writer should be considered an egomaniac), though I'll be posting the occasional Bonus Story when I have the spark to actually write something interesting. I'm also intending to Write On Demand at some later stage, once I'm more confident.

Thanks to all of House Sathar for their warm welcome, their ongoing perseverance in Warhammer Online and their help and advice on my writing.

As a final note, I'd like to point out that right now Driven By Hate is a work in progress which needs a lot of tweaking, and that I'm beginning by posting one (maybe two) excerpts a week so as to help my run up at giving this writing shit a serious shot.

Read on! \m/

Od.

"Hooray! It's your Year-Closer-to-Death Day!"

Welcome along!

I'd like to thank Gem, Adam, Justin, Weanie and Fi for turning up for birthday drinks on Saturday. The rest of you are rubbish EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIVE NEAR COLCHESTER!

Auntie Gill and Uncle Martin also popped by on Sunday with a birthday picnic, which was nomtastic. It's always good to see my favourite Auntie and Uncle. And me Dad popped down with Lou and two of the Brood (read: my little brother and sister) to drop off my pressies and wish me a happy birthday last weekend, which was actually fun.

So all in all I had a great birthday and most importantly of all I was lavished with appropriate tribute,thusly:

From my Father and his Brood, most notably, a tea mug featuring a piece of Paul Kidby artwork, a t-shirt decorated with the Josh Kirby (R.I.P., legend) cover of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, a new jigsaw puzzle depicting Josh Kirby's artwork for Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, and a string of plastic skulls with flashing, multi-coloured lights!

From Auntie Gill and Uncle Martin, a lavish birthday picnic, a generous monetary tribute and the pleasure of their company on Recovery Sunday.

From Gem, most notably, a copy of Disney's The Sword in The Stone on DVD, six glow-in-the-dark fingerbobs (one of which is the most enthusiastic-looking toy I've EVER seen) and a bag of birthday Twiglets OM NOM NOM NOM.

From Justin, a genuine Guitar Hero action figure blister featuring the legendary Lars Umlaut, probably my favourite and definitely the most metal of Guitar Hero's (human) characters!

From Fi, one of the most thoughtful presents I've gotten in a while, an origami P-Chan, complete with origami bandana! It sits upon my bookcase with an aura of stubborn pride and it is byootifull.

The regards and birthday wishes of all those not mentioned here were also a great gift, and I'm honestly feeling better in myself for the reminder that people know I'm alive. I'd like to give a specific shout to man Weanie for turning up to offer a quick Happy Birthday to me even though he was absolutely shattered from his gig. Try as I might I couldn't get a link to his band while at work, but they're awesome, a SERIOUS metal band named Sower.

Right then, what else is going on? Well, (switch off, non-nerds) the Warhammer Online update I've been waiting for since release is finally here, so tonight I finally get to play one of the bad guys and enjoy the hate-filled psychopath that is the Black Guard of Naggarond. I'm really looking forward to hacking people up with a spiky halberd. In other news, meddling with the components of my gaming rig has been an unusually fun experience, so much so that I've taken it into my head to come up with an ambitious project.

Now, it won't come as a surprise to some of you that I've always had a soft spot for laptops. My first real gaming rig (more fool me) was a laptop, and I've had a hankering for a new one since mine was stolen. Obviously I've learned my lesson and don't want one for gaming anymore, nor do I want to spend more than £150 on the thing. No, I want what I will refer to as a shitbox laptop. Basically, all I'm going to use it for is writing, the occasional piece of artwork, listening to music and internet browsing. It needs at least two USB ports for a memory stick and printer coupling, and at the very most 80GB of space. I've been scouting NetBooks (these things are cool) and while I appreciate the fact that they are rather nifty, they're also a bit dinky for my sausage-like fingers and manhands. I might punch straight through the keyboard with these fat digits. The ultimate draw of a NetBook (for me at least) is the fact that they're so small. I've wanted a laptop as a replacement for pens and paper, pretty much because I find it nearly impossible to write with pens anymore. I never follow up what I write in my notebooks, they're more of a scrap/draft/scribble/idea pad than a real notebook.
The only thing is, I'm going to want to mess it up. I'm gonna paint it, engrave on it, stick things to it and generally make it ugly, unstealable and undeniably mine. So I don't want anything too fancy, you see.

I know, it's a dilemma.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with me and have a good day!

Od.

Murkanary

Sounds a bit like a pokemon, doesn't it?

I'm not going to start out this blog with a tirade of bitter sentences all in capital letters or complain about anything in particular, much as I would like to. I've been having one of those runs of annoyance and frustration that one blessed with less testicular fortitude might refer to as 'depression', so I've decided to list my Top Five Favourite Things to cheer myself up. I might do some writing later on as well.

So!

5. Online Gaming.

Just gotten back into online gaming recently with the addition of my shiny new 'net connection, and I have to say I'd completely forgotten that it can vary so much! There are the obviously irritating moments, i.e. when ANYONE uses the word noob or one of its variations, but
there's the sheer brilliance of co-ordinating movements with another player and formulating battle plans, as well as sharing ideas and tips!

4. Movies.

I LOVE a good movie. Especially on those incredibly rare occasions when I get to go with a group. I've been unable to do this recently due to my lack of funding what with Reading coming up, so my monthly issues of Total Film are becoming slightly dog-eared as a result. If I can't see the movies I just have to read about 'em as much as possible. :(

3. The Sandwich.

I WOULD go with 'nuff said', but I can't expound upon the virtues of the sandwich enough. I assume you already know the origins of this humble yet satisfying snack, so I won't go into that, but I am of the firm belief that you could cram just about anything into a sandwich. Hells, I
remember the grotesquerie that was my neighbour's children living on sugar sandwiches when I was little.

2. A Good Book.

No, not THE Good Book (although I have read it cover-to-cover and to be honest I only liked Genesis and Revelations, the rest was a bit dull). I mean the satisfaction that comes from reading a good book, or even better, a series of good books! There's something great about getting to know the characters and the worlds of someone else's imagination, then the reactions you get from whatever occurs. I highly recommend the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, by the way.

1. The Carling Festival (Reading).

Do you know how I measure my year? You probably measure yours the same way as everyone else, i.e. 1st of January to the 31st of December (or otherwise where applicable) but what I'm getting at is that my year ends on the final day of the Festival (Sunday) and begins on Monday morning, when all the grubby, smelly, bleary-eyed, hungover or else wasted festivalgoers pack up their little canvas homes for another year and roll on back to civilisation. It's the most amazing three (sometimes five!) days of my entire year, without fail. I get to spend nearly a WEEK with my best friends (well, most of 'em, it's a shame my geek buddies aren't into festivals), listen to some awesome bands, hang out with thousands of people who are trying far too hard to be cool, which is no end of amusement to me, and get the fuck AWAY from everything. No offices, no computers, no buses, no chavs, no drug-crazy neighbours, no rent, no tax.. I'm getting all nostalgic now. I may even squirt a few tears.

Of course, the saddest thing is that this, potentially my eighth year in a row, is so far looking like the least likely of years for me to go. Unless I can pull out all the stops budget wise and scam some money out of people, I won't be going. SO! If anyone knows of a way to make a quick two hundred squid or wants to buy any of my doodles from the gallery (see Linkage, right ->), now's the time to let me know!

And how hard can it BE to use this eBay thing, anyway..

...oh hell, I don't know what any of these words mean! GEM! HELP ME OUT BUDDEH! What in the name of the Emperor is a 'listing charge'?!