What’s it all about? What is the cipher of Lodestar? I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, as we creep ever closer to the end.

The art we make is a window. The artist sees the world through its lense, and the audience can catch a glimpse of the artist’s true nature. Lodestar is the longest work I’ve contributed to, so shouldn’t it reveal the most?

I find myself looking at the broad shape of it, and finding it oddly inscrutable. Certain themes are clear: great deeds require sacrifice, morality is inconvenient, exploration, friendship, freedom, sorrow.

But what about all the strange little curliques of my subconscious? Why are the devils so sure? Why are the villains so true? Why are the dinosaurs philosophers? Why do all the cities have plazas, and the temples have spires? Why is Simon a romantic fool, and why is the Grand Wizard dead? And why is all in ruin? Gilead, Kythera, the Dragoons, Caleron, Quorum, Bards Gate. Even Hell itself totters and quakes.

Serve or Destroy. Why is that the binary? They are fundamental tropes for the genre, but why do they emerge now? Who made the White Sword? What did the Lost flee?

What am I afraid of?