I have been working on this series for a long, long time. The first game launched in May 2016, just over eight years ago now.

As we approach the end of the latest arc, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on all the games we have done over the years; all of the characters we have seen, and all of the stories we have told, and - of course - how those stories end. My free time isn't what it used to be (WOW, THAT'S AN ORIGINAL STATEMENT), and the end of every arc always brings with it the possibility that it will also be the end of the series. I considered ending things after Season Two in 2017, I considered ending things after The Final Season in 2019, I considered ending things after Verdant Wind in 2021, and now I'm sitting here in 2024 feeling again like maybe this time it will, truly, be time to let the series rest.

How many more games or campaigns do I really have left in me to run? Do I have enough worlds left in this universe worth creating? How do they stack up against all of the other hobbies I would like to fill my time with? Running this series has (mostly) been a blast, but it has also taken so much time that could have been dedicated to other things.

Plus, we have done a lot. There are 24 games in the entire series, and extra material besides - various Tales written by the players or myself that add to the worlds we have created. That is a lot of story. There are games in there that deal with medieval politics, games that deal with religion, games that deal with death and undeath and where vanished things go. We've had a murder mystery and plunged ourselves into cosmic horror. We have traveled the seas in pirate adventures, and sailed the multiverse. We have destroyed worlds, saved them, destroyed them again, saved them again. We have traveled through time on dozens of occasions. The players have fought themselves, the players have fought the undead, the players have fought spirits and gods and horrors beyond reckoning. We did a Halloween Special! We did a Holiday Special! We tried - and kinda succeeded? - in doing a Roguelike! There has been so much art - cover art for games, special artworks for special chapters, fan comics (some canonized), character pieces, emotes, sketches.

We've done a lot. I mean, just look at the image below.

Five (or really six) story arcs.

You have The Long Night in red: Season One, A Clockwork Night, Season Two.

You have The Great War in black: Season Three, The Odyssey, The Final Season.

You have The Argo Trilogy in green: The Argonauts, The Apologoi, The Aenid.

You have Edge of Dawn in blue: Theogony, Twilight Requiem, Azure Moon, Silver Snow, Crimson Flower, Verdant Wind.

Somewhere in there, you have Glass.

You have The Many Worlds in purple: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Epigoni, Into the Argo-Verse, Across the Argo-Verse, and the upcoming final chapter.

And then the Tales from Atama in orange: AetherGarde, The Abomination!!, Balathumel and the 12 Days of X-Mas.

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I know that I have at least three games left in me. One is the final chapter of The Many Worlds.

The other two will explore the two possible outcomes of a choice that was made at the end of all good things.

And I think, if that is where this series ends, I would be satisfied with how it all turned out.

But who knows?

After all, I have said this all before.

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