Mike Struan (@mikestruan.com)

@mikestruan.com Oct 11, 2026, 5:10 PM

I hate it when that happens and you just don't remember the name of someone... #WIPSnips
To be fair, dwarven families are extensive.

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“What are you doing here, Dagna? You’re not supposed to be here. You’re exiled, remember?”
So much for staying incognito. Now that she thought about it, she was sure she had seen the woman before. Wasn’t she the wife of one of her cousin’s half-sisters? She tried to remember her name, but came up blank.
“I know. I’m just…”
What would Valir do? Didn’t he say that stacking too many lies on top of each other made stories unbelievable?

@mikestruan.com Oct 9, 2026, 11:03 AM

Kragh, my main #AwesomeCharacters, wears the small necklace with a tiny vial, containing some of the first alchemical mixture he ever did: a glowing paste!

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@mikestruan.com Oct 9, 2026, 11:02 AM

Huh. Doesn't sound good.
#WIPSnips

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“Why does he hate humans so much, anyway?” Valir asked.

“I’m not entirely sure. He didn’t talk about it, but there have been rumors. A long time ago, years before I’ve been born, he had a run-in with a soldier who raided the region where he lived with his family. The others said she hurt him, but wouldn’t say how. They got all weird on that topic, so I didn’t ask further. Probably all the broken bones.”

@mikestruan.com Oct 7, 2026, 6:06 PM

Someone always steps in before Dagna can go through with the catapult! Such killjoys.

@mikestruan.com Oct 7, 2026, 5:56 PM

Taking four chapters to repair the damage bad!

@mikestruan.com Oct 7, 2026, 9:09 AM

Kragh sometimes has a plan, and usually, things happen and then the plan is worthless.
Valir rarely has a plan and the one time he does, it's a *really bad one*.
Dagna always has multiple plans. Some of them involve putting half-orcs on catapults.
#AwesomeCharacters

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@mikestruan.com Oct 7, 2026, 9:07 AM

The scene this #WIPSnips is from is kinda bittersweet. And also hints at something bigger going on with the two of them.

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Kraghtol hated his own voice. It was too deep, too gravelly, the opposite of Valir’s melodic one. He had never dared to sing in front of other people, not once in his life. Yet, when the memory of the song approached its climax, his voice swelled without him wanting to, and he found himself singing the voice memory-Valir was not. It sounded crude and amateurish in comparison, but also as if the song was missing this exact voice of his.

@mikestruan.com Oct 6, 2026, 7:36 AM

The Queen of Chaos, an #AwesomeCharacters herself, has a pretty awesome sense of fashion! At least if you like colors.

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@mikestruan.com Oct 6, 2026, 7:35 AM

I don't have any rice in my WIP, so please have another source of carbonhydrates instead!
#WIPSnipe

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“Wardenreach, from the northwest, to be precise,” Valir said. “We met near the border, and Vrogh told us about this city of yours. Haven. A peculiar name, I have to say. What exactly are you a refuge from?”

Throkh gestured vaguely all around and shrugged. “Hostility. Prejudice. Stupidity. We’re trying to get along, like civilized people, and grow together. Not bash in each other’s heads over border disputes. Baked potatoes are fine?”

@mikestruan.com Oct 5, 2026, 8:38 AM

Hey, an artist who draws green skin and who a buddy vouches for? Don't mind if I do... It's orctober.

@mikestruan.com Oct 5, 2026, 8:33 AM

A very prominent wall in today's #WIPSnips. Much in Exiles is about that very wall.

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Dagna didn’t look convinced. “A bunch of stone columns? They don’t look very alchemical to me.”
As if on cue, a wall of silent blue fire erupted between the stones far to the left, bridging the hundred meters between them with a bright curtain of alchemical energy. The phenomenon traveled between the steles within moments until it disappeared to the right. As quickly as it had appeared, the cold fire vanished again, leaving behind unsinged grass. Nothing but the bright afterimage in Kraghtol’s eyes indicated it had ever been there.
“I take that back,” Dagna said.

@mikestruan.com Oct 4, 2026, 5:12 PM

I've got a ton of them in my Obsidian vault, but I guess the town details come from a lot of practice with game mastering pen and paper adventures!

@mikestruan.com Oct 4, 2026, 2:29 PM

From there, I worked out the very foundations of the world, but I don't want to spoil you book 2 onward.

@mikestruan.com Oct 4, 2026, 2:29 PM

Without joke, the magic system is always one of the very first things I design and what I put most work in. Bland magic systems are... blergh. Here, I went with Principles that aren't so overused and hid them behind absolutely overused four elements.

@mikestruan.com Oct 4, 2026, 11:01 AM

Half of my book is the word "contract", not gonna lie. Here's a (slightly censored) one at the end of book 2. #WIPSnips

A beta reader put it as "I now realize the entire series is about a bunch of people trying to navigate their NDAs", and he is right.

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“Hold on. You didn’t tell us anything!” Dagna said. “At least not anything we didn’t already know. Give me the details. Who exactly are you? How old are you? Why are you like that? What can you do? With whom do you have that contract? Who are the other three?”

[…] shook her head. “Really. I can’t! You’re far too involved as it is.”

Dagna crossed her arms over her chest.

@mikestruan.com Oct 3, 2026, 5:03 PM

Rightfully so!

@mikestruan.com Oct 3, 2026, 7:49 AM

I can do unpredictable #AwesomeCharacters!

🥉Jared from Dam Breakers, casually agreeing to a month-long magical journey mid-semester.
🥈Kragh from Alchemical Green, who's just very ADHD-coded.
🥇Wyrdroot from AG, who... I have no idea what he's up to now. Nothing good probably?

#WriteSky

@mikestruan.com Oct 3, 2026, 7:46 AM

Congratulations!

@mikestruan.com Oct 3, 2026, 7:44 AM

FAIRY NONSENSE!
Listen to the guy, he knows what he's talking about.
#WIPSnips

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With a thud and the sound of tiny bells, something fell into the snow next to their camp, forming a crater in the powdery white. Spring flower petals and teal leaves continued to dance downwards like snowflakes as silence had already returned.
“Stars above. What was that?” Valir asked, examining the falling plant parts that seemed completely out of season.
“Fairy nonsense,” Gromvald said. His normally patient voice was grumbling with annoyance. “Best ignore it. I didn’t know they come that far.”

@mikestruan.com Oct 2, 2026, 4:20 PM

Look at that GOOD BOY @aowna.bsky.social created for me!
Skarn, the thunderwolf, will make his appearance in Alchemical Exiles and I'm absolutely AMAZED by how well he turned out.
Thank you @aowna.bsky.social!
#Art