Blight of Divinity | A Dark Fantasy SagaBook 1 Available Now

Elias Fenic follows what he calls The Philosophy of Discovery: a disciplined commitment to "Show, don't tell" storytelling. Rather than front-loading large exposition blocks, Elias believes world-building should unfold organically through subtext, character actions, and environmental detail. A living world implies history through consequences and behavior, allowing readers to uncover and infer the world's depth rather than read through it like a textbook or be overtly fed the information.

This philosophy is inspired in part by the storytelling methods used in immersive mediums, particularly FromSoftware's Soulslike titles or within the Metroid Prime games. In this style, lore, world-building, and important story elements are revealed through atmosphere, implications, environments, and details that reward close attention. The result is a layered experience that invites individual interpretation and rewards repeated experiences with newfound insights.

In Rise of The Witnesses, the world of Albrene functions independently of heavy exposition. Even if the more nuanced details of the world are not accurately interpreted or only partially understood, the story is still accessible. However, attentive readers will pick up on subtle threads of lore and find it rewarding and stimulating to piece the puzzle together. Especially when theories born of these threads prove ture in later chapters and novels.

The Philosophy of Discovery aims to create a story, long-spanning narrative, and world that is discovered by the reader over time and repeated read-throughs. It is one that trusts the reader's intelligence, intuition, and engagement to infer, dive deeper, and explore the world of Albrene through all of its interconnected media.

In 2014, Elias was far into the process of writing a book called Awakening, what he intended to be the first book in a trilogy. It was the book that started his journey as a writer back in 2010. A typical chosen one prophecy that took inspiration from many popular titles.

However, while at college, The Art Institute Gaming Society roped Elias into playing Dungeons and Dragons. This singular act instilled a love for tabeletop roleplaying games. When the group's DM eventually graduated and moved on, Elias was elected as the new DM.

In the years that followed, Elias wrote and managed several homebrew campaigns and the players become life-long friends.

After graduation, Elias moved on, and returned to further developing Awakening. But the players were not satisfied, and demanded his return as their DM. So, in 2017, Elias wrote Blight of Divinity, a Dungeons and Dragons campaign intended as the prequel to his book.

By necessity, when building a world for players to explore, the world-building and lore had to expand. And with it, a far larger series was born.

Since the first campaign, the book has taken on a life of its own, departing in many meaningful ways from the campaign and the characters that inspired the book. However, Elias remains eternally greatful for the contributions of his friends and family in that fateful campaign.