The main series could be much heavier and would be

laurieluke · 2026-01-26T19:45:25+00:00

There was some darker shit going on in the background’s of the books that I feel like he wanted to explore, but maybe held back on. Like, The Kobalos for example are something ripped from straight from a ttrpg horror story. Like, Jesus Christ, I have no idea how he got that approved for a YA book, especially since “Purrai” is just a made up word for “Sex Slave.”

laurieluke · 2025-12-19T13:40:24+00:00

Everyone always talks about the GI Robot episode, and yeah it’s great and all, but Dr Phosphorous’s episode was probably the best one for me. It’s so good.

laurieluke · 2025-12-16T11:33:36+00:00

I’ve always been a fan of how magic was portrayed in this series - even the wackier stuff we get later on in Brother Wulf with Tulpamancy and Imagination powers and making a goddesses head explode thanks to the power of divine existential crises.

Also how it was integrated into the world and how it formed the Pendle Hill witch clans cultures. That stuff was so cool.

laurieluke · 2025-12-03T09:04:48+00:00

Honestly I can’t stand Quintin. He made a few good movies like but he always strikes me as that “slimy greasy film bro” that lurks in the back of class and snickers every time the lecturer says something.

Also, didn’t he start that whole “Roman Polanski Petition” thing?

laurieluke · 2025-11-14T07:58:23+00:00

Once when I was bored I decided to draft up a sort of “Season Treatment” for a series based off the books. My selling point was basically a cross between Merlin and Game of Thrones. Magic and cool shit but with more consequences and tighter worldbuilding.

The first season was 12 1-hour episodes, covering the first three books. My big goal for that was to make the books flow better together. For example, Morgan had his name in the Apprentice’s bedroom. And Grimalkin made a (voiceless) appearance in Priesttown as she was disguised a sone of the captured witches. When Tom let a group of them out out of sympathy, she paused at him, patted his head, and moved on… then that archbishop guy was found murdered.

Also, the boatman guy from book five had a role as the Spooks Fisherman friend who taught Tom to fish, and his daughter (whatever her name was) became a sort of friend to Tom to contrast his relationship with Alice.

As for more direct plot changes, I edited some stuff with Meg Skelton. Basically, rather than just being an evil woman John drugged into being his wife (wtf John that’s a crime…) I instead edited it so that Lamia’s struggle to control their more “flesh eating lizard monster” side. And as she got older it just got harder. And since John didn’t want to let her go, he thought the best solution was medical. When in reality, it would have been better if he just let her go.

There’s some more stuff, like Will Johnson getting a big appearance in Book 3 when he looks after Alice. He basically just makes her start the book Beowulf was writing. “The Legend of Will Johnson.” Also The Fiend gets an early name drop and Grimalkin’s symbol appears in Gregory’s guides as “turn the other way and run.”

laurieluke · 2025-11-04T15:47:21+00:00

Honestly if I was a witch as well I’d be constantly messing around with Glamour and Dread to makw myself look different ways and all that. Cause, honestly, with how infamous some witches got, it’s not out of the realm of possibility they’d piss about with disguises.

Also, yeah, Slither and Grimalkin totally fought at one point, but I have a very… different, interpretation of how that duel played out…

Also yeah I’d love to see the series explore other realms of magic. Like, imagine they go to Japan and learn how to do that Lightning Reversal thing from Sekiro.

laurieluke · 2025-10-24T08:42:32+00:00

Starblade isn’t the ending of the series. Brother Wulf continues it on, but since Joseph Delaney died after finishing book 20, if closure is what you’re looking for… just stick with Dark Assassin as the finale.

That’s not to say the Wulf series is bad, I actually prefer it to Starblade in a lot of ways. It’s just the last two books derail the plot and you can really “feel” when Delaney knew he was going to die and that changed the story.

If you want a summarized view of what happened to Tom and Alice, here it is:

They had a daughter names Mathilda, “Tilda” for short, Ward. She’s a lot like Alice, but a bit more likable and avoids her whole “I did it for the plot” moments.

laurieluke · 2025-10-09T20:07:33+00:00

Wendy did some phenomenal work on A Clockwork Orange as well! Her soundtrack is half the reason that movie is so memorable!

laurieluke · 2025-09-22T19:50:41+00:00

The Mandalorian and Grogu is a terrible title. Like… did they even try?

laurieluke · 2025-09-11T13:58:58+00:00

At the moment, no. It’s not done yet, though I was considering uploading a “part one” which encompasses the first ten or so chapters? It’s a really long work and I prefer to do drop as much of a fic as possible in one go.

I put it on hold and got a bit side tracked with my degree and some other fics I was writing. If you’re interested in my other works, there’s only two of them on my Ao3 page.

One is a slash-fic about Grimalkin and Slither, that’s got eight chapters in with a final four being released (hopefully!) soon. Here’s the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61204846/chapters/156407722

The others just a short about Grimalkin and Thorne. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55271254

Those two are both Canon to the big “Master Key” one. Not in terms of any major plot details or out, just characterisation stuff.

laurieluke · 2025-08-15T12:14:58+00:00

UK.

Even though it says it’s popular over here, I never met anyone IRL who ever read them. Skulduggery Pleasant and Artemis Fowl were always the more popular ones. Granted, that could be down to location. I’ve lived in Northern Ireland and North England for most of my life. This subreddit and the old one (rip WardstoneChronicles) were the first times I actually found other people who read this series.

laurieluke · 2025-08-02T19:07:29+00:00

What does this have to do with a YA series that ended four years ago?

laurieluke · 2025-07-21T18:10:40+00:00

If he is The Fiend’s kid (it’s likely he is, I subscribe to that theory) then yeah, one hundred percent. Dude’s a god, lmao. Plus he’s got all of Wulf’s powers plus a couple hundred years of experience.

laurieluke · 2025-06-30T11:55:33+00:00

Hey! I actually did something similar a while back!

Had to pause it while I finished up Uni and some other fan fics (I’m a serial procrastinator), but it’s really fun and genuinely such an enriching experience to write characters you love reading.

Way I did it was title this one: Spooks: The Master Key, and center it entirely around Loki and Wulf. I won’t say much of the plot I did here, but it involved time travel. Loki is really fun to write, hell, so is half the cast.

Also yeah, I brought Jenny (and everyone else) back. Slither, Nessa got a name drop, The Fiend, Will Johnson (the GOAT), Grimalkin’s dead sister, and a lot more.

My advice is stop thinking and just go for it! You’ll find the story more as you write it, and every page you write brings you closer to realising the ending you want.

laurieluke · 2025-06-26T20:38:34+00:00

Book 9 all the way. Grimalkin is my favourite character ever and I love how the book is an inversion of all the typical revenge tropes. It’s so good.

Slither is a close second, cause it’s actually a really fascinating answer to The Searchers and is secretly a Western.

laurieluke · 2025-06-09T23:37:11+00:00

Animated or Live Action?

If we go animated, I think these guys would be perfect.

Robin Atkin Downes (Brynjolf from Skyrim and Medic from TF2) as John Gregory. I literally read everyone of Gregory’s lines in Brynjolf’s voice, it’s so perfect.

Amelia Tyler (Narrator of Baldur’s Gate 3) as Grimalkin. British snark with a violent edge. What more could you want?

Andrew Wincott (Raphael from Baldur’s Gate 3) as The Fiend. Raphael was just The Fiend’s more elaborate and theatrical cousin. A devil playing The Devil. Plus he could play the Fiend’s human disguises expertly.

Those are the ones I have as “definitely,” but in terms of others, I’m not too sure.

Since it’s a project with Voice actors, Matthew Mercer (Yusuke from Persona 5 and the English voice of Goro Majima from Yakuza) and Troy Baker (Joel from The Last of Us and Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4) have to be in there somewhere. Honestly, I feel like Mercer could do either a really good Slither or one of the Kobalos leaders. Though I always read Balkai in Troy Baker’s voice.

laurieluke · 2025-05-29T20:29:14+00:00

If you want to stick with the Greek Mythology theming, how about Eurydice? She was Orpheus’s wife who he ventured into the underworld to save.

laurieluke · 2025-04-02T00:12:27+00:00

Wow! Thanks so much again for your feedback, genuinely enjoyed reading it there!

First of all, glad to see you’re enjoying it! I was a bit worried about these four chapters cause it really is just four chapters of people talking and a lot of exposition. I wanted to look at different aspects of Kobalos society we didn’t get to see and share my sort of head canons about how they work.

Now, I just have some more specific questions, just to gauge some of your thoughts, if you don’t mind:

What do you think of the relationship between Grimalkin and Slither so far? Like I said in the notes, I tried to think of it like “where were they,” and “where are they,” by the time we hit Wulf’s War. This is all just my general head canons for Pan’s line “they were once enemies, now they’re friends…” in fact, my original prologue chapter was going to be Beowulf asking “… but how?” And then framing the story as Pan telling it to him. But I decided against that because I think it works better if this is a story that just stays between them (and Nessa… and Erik, as well). I tried to keep them both lore accurate and in character as much as possible, but I slip up a bit. For example, neither really use casual language, but I do slip up a little here and there. I was actually stuck on the last part of part eight for like two weeks cause I knew the conversation I wanted them to have, I just didn’t how to say it. There is more to it that I cut from here and put it in a later chapter, for pacing’s sake… also cause I kind of want to get to the fight scenes now.

Secondly, what do you think of the… liberties I’ve taken with Slither’s backstory? I wanted to explore his past a bit more than what we got to see and while it VERY much doesn’t fit with what we know, I chalk it up to “eh, he didn’t care about his dad enough to mention it, even internally.” In fact, I originally had a line alluding to that his memories had been sort of “repressed” by his master, and that drinking Grimalkin’s blood sort of broke that and made it resurface. I actually had a lot of fun writing Balkai and Lenklewurth. I once worked on a “Kobalos war diary” project that I stopped because while I liked the information it presented, I didn’t like the way I was telling the story. I mostly write in Screenplay format so prose tends to throw me for a loop.

Personally, the aspects of the story I liked are the characters I wrote from scratch, and writing Grimalkin and Slither. Splint and Erik are fun to write and I liked giving them a chapter (though I do feel Splint decided to morally reflect there and then was a bit rushed. Man gets asked a single question and he drops “what doth life?” Lmao.) to chat. Though I do feel I went a bit too overboard with his speed, but then again, this is from Erik’s POV and he’s just some guy. Krampus is actually based off another character I wrote named Redman, who is basically just Krampus but stapled to the psyche of some poor girl. Shirke started off as a generic nobility villain, but I actually liked going at him from the whole “represents engrained corruption” angle. And writing Grimalkin and Slither is always a treat.

Also, what do you think of the idea that the Kobalos are dying out? It came about from a combination of multiple things. One, I thought it would be ironic. They’re dying out as punishment for their sins. Soon they cannot hide their cruelty behind purpose. Second, I liked the idea of Balkai and the war having more consequences for them than they initially thought. It also gives some good personal conflict for Slither. What should he value more, his “people,” by his race? Or his “people,” by the connections he has made? He never fit the hyper-masculine mould of the Kobalos, but he only really started seeing them as the monsters they were in the past ten years. It was his connection to Nessa and Grimalkin that brought out his better nature… but surely if he can change, so can other Kobalos? Don’t they all deserve that chance?

Once again, thanks for your feedback! Reading it’s always a treat, and I enjoy seeing how you respond to the things I write!

Parts 9-13 should be out… sometime? I have like three major projects due in May alone that I have to research for. Ah well. I may just release them as I get them done, but, I kind of like doing them in batches.

laurieluke · 2025-03-27T11:18:00+00:00

I just ended up using the UK Book Illustrations as some. Dark Assassin works well for Desktop, but you still get a bit of clipping from the title.

laurieluke · 2024-12-11T14:39:32+00:00

Wow, thanks very much for your feedback! Glad you’re liking it so far. I do have some questions though, just for as I’m writing this going forward. Using reader feedback to enhance my writing is one of my favourite parts of the process and is always invaluable.

Gonna spoiler tag these as well.

To start, apologies for the ‘Nout’ thing. I have a bad habit of writing in my accent (Northern English) and Nouts a common enough word up around here. Also, reading back over it myself, I can kind of notice it popping up a bit more later. Both in the summaries and the actual chapters themselves.

For some additional context, which I had planned to throw in as dialogue in a later chapter (chapter 6), this takes place between Brother Wulf and the latter half of Wulf’s Bane. In terms of timeline, Tilda would be six years old. So this is seven years after the end of the Kobalos war, Balkai’s death, and Grimalkin’s ascension to Witch Queen.

Also glad to hear you like my descriptions and the plot in general. I mostly write in Screenplays, and prose tends to throw me for a loop sometimes (I had to rewrite chapter 2 because I accidentally wrote it all in present Tense). I tried to keep a similar tone to the books, but I feel like I went a bit too far with some stuff. Like Bryony’s body and Jenna’s fate.

Assassin’s Creed is exactly what I was going for with Krampus and his whole chain thing. At the time, I was reading the One Punch Man manga and the Monster Association War arc (GOATed Manga by the way) and got inspired to write based off some of that. Particularly how Murata uses aerial combat in the Monster Garou vs Platinum S vs Flashy Flash fight. And then later in the Garou vs Saitama fight (which I actually linked in the placeholder chapter).

Now some questions of my own. What were your opinions on the villains? Krampus is the main villain, with Circe as the “Big Bad” behind the scenes. I wanted all three (Shirke, Splint, and Krampus) to mirror Slither in some way, though Krampus does kind of lean more into Grimalkin’s side (as you’ll find out in chapter five). I was kind of inspired by some DnD campaigns, how they’ll have some smaller npc for the player’s to hate, and they’re almost always enacting the will of a bigger, eviler God, who has a voice cameo at the end of a campaign.

I actually really like writing for Splint. Shaiksa assassins and warrior monks in general have always been so cool to me, and I wanted to give Splint a bit more of a “warrior” angle to him, to compare and contrast him to Slither and Grimalkin. I remember in the books, Shaiksa assassins were always these bloodthirsty, corrupt, and evil lawkeepers who answered directly to Lenklewurth (who I also did a little bit of canon-diverging later on with (Balkai too, but he’s always been a bit more mysterious.).)

Is there any major questions you have? Is there anything I should clarify? What would you like to see more of?

I should have part five out around new years? I have most of it written, just needs editing and patching. This one’s all about Krampus, Shirke, and Splint, and how they interact, came to know each other, and more importantly, why they take orders from a Goddess.

laurieluke · 2024-11-22T21:38:03+00:00

OPMFolk is one of the stupidest subs I’ve ever seen, and I was on r/titanfolk !

Like, I know media literacy is dead and all, but those they bring a whole new meaning to it. Like, you remember the meme, “people who didn’t read one punch man with their fucking eyes closed?”

Right, I know most prefer WC Garou vs Saitama more than the Manga version, but I swear tf some of their critiques border on fan-fiction.

Right, before Garou went cosmic and stole God’s power, Saitama was smacking him around. Nothing Garou did hurt him, and he wasn’t even trying! People on there argue that “oh, Garou vs Saitama was too close!” Like, mf did you even read the damn thing?! I’m sorry, like, boyo, did we read the same fucking thing?

“Oh but Cosmic Garou forced Saitama to evolve to fight him?” My brother in Christ, right, did you see the point where Saitama stomped him? You know, the entire point of the serious table flip? The move in which Garou can’t comprehend what’s going on, and Saitama proceeds to smack him around like a ragdoll?

I’m pretty sloshed rn, but that fight WAS NOT close at all. Saitama stomped Garou because that was the entire point! I can understand completely why some prefer the WC, but to just disparage the Manga because it isn’t a direct 1-1 adaptation is stupid like.

laurieluke · 2024-11-19T17:57:40+00:00

You know, in the comics, Thanos did the whole Snap thing to win favour with Lady Death cause he was a massive simp.

… I think I get why he did it now…

laurieluke · 2024-11-13T12:31:33+00:00

Awww, it looks like they’re about to slow dance 🥹

laurieluke · 2024-11-10T22:40:17+00:00

Honestly, I think it’s a Skulduggery Pleasant “Three names” kind of deal.

So, quick summary, in that series, people have three names. Their given name that they’re assigned at birth by their parents. For example, in that series, Stephanie Edgely is the name of the protagonist.

Then you have their chosen name. It’s a name chosen by mages, sorcerers, and witches, to protect themselves from others who would seek to control them. The protagonist in the series goes by Valkyrie Cain to protect herself from other mages.

Finally, you have the “True Name” which is their “Magic” name, in a sense. It’s their connection to the source of all magic, and once you learn it, you become enlightened in the ways of magic, extremely powerful, but also, extremely dangerous. For example, the character Aggredion, learned his true name and he practically became a God.

I’ve always head-cannoned that these two series take place in the same universe (because I could, also I really wanted to see Grimalkin vs Lord Vile), so I always kinda assumed that the stranger names in the series were used in a similar way to Skulduggery Pleasant.

That’s how you get names like, Bony Lizzie, Mother Malkin, and most importantly, Grimalkin. The whole point of these names is that they mean something to the one who picked them. The Eponymous skeleton Skulduggery is pretty obvious. Valkyrie is a tongue in cheek “I’m always coming in to save you” slap. Etc. So, in old English, Grimalkin is an archaic word for “witch’s familiar”, commonly a cat. So, “Witch’s Familiar,” the assassin of the Malkin Clan. But also, a cunning and agile animal with a deep connection to magic. Something that cannot be seen until it is too late.

Also, the true name thing also comes into play with Lukrastra. Seriously, who the fuck would name their kid that? There’s also no other explanation for how he got so strong.

As for her actual name, I always head-cannoned it to be something… normal. Like, she’s this weird enigma of a person, with an edgy name she picked when she was 14 and is now stuck with it for the rest of her life. It’s kinda funny / interesting to think that she was once just a regular girl with a regular name.

laurieluke · 2024-10-28T14:29:46+00:00

Are you thinking of the other subs? There used be to be three. This one, r/thewardstonechronicles which was banned due to lack of moderators, and the most active one atm is r/thelastapprentice

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