[SPOILERS!!!] Heart of Fire Novel Discussion

@realstyli
The book was awesome! I wonder whatever happened with Karin and Jewels' quest to save Scrap's soul. (Presuming they found what they were looking for in the eight years between the events of the book and the events of the Seabound Soul.)

Here's my only problem with the book and the story overall: it's becoming Star Wars. For the longest time, Star Wars had all of these really cool characters scattered across their videogames (with Starkiller), their animated series (with Ahsoka and Captain Rex), and with their books (with Thrawn). Up until the last few years, these characters and their stories had felt isolated from Star Wars proper. Disney has made an effort to fix that, but I'm worried Rare is falling into the same hole.

I've already mentioned Karin and Jewels, but maybe if they haven't found what they are looking for, their quest could serve as the plot of a future adventure? I would also like to see Harry come back into the game as a boss of some kind. Maybe put him into the rotation for the Ashen Winds event?

I guess my point is that the events of the book and the events of the game feel unnecessarily distant. Rare's strong suit has always been their characters and I'd love to see them put more of a focus on existing characters rather then creating new ones.

@lucky11

Yeah, I hope we do get closure on Karin and Jewels' trying to save Scraps. I don't know if having it in game though could work; given the back story is in the novel, it might not click with folks who haven't read this story. Still, would love to know if they succeeded or not.

I get your point but do feel like this book did a better job at tying into the game than previous media though. Especially when it comes to fleshing out characters like Eli Slate and the crew of the Morningstar, as well as some of Flameheart's followers like Captain Adara.

I think the story will also tie into future events, as Chris Allcock says in his blog post, so we will see its importance become more apparent. I think especially when it comes to Duke, the Cap'n, and The GMU's involvement in Flameheart's arch, we'll see how that plays out.

Just posting again to hide the last post from the preview... we really need spoiler tags on this forum!

@realstyli I REALLY loved the Novel. Bought it on Kindle just as it released and finished it in a day. Oh boy... Did the writing really took a huge step up.

I loved the ending with the chest and the lore reveal of the funni wonder chest just before DeMarco fills the ship with gunpowder using the chest and Duke exploding it using the chess timer.

HOWEVER... I... I... Just... I just...

Flameheart, this really well written villian that has great backstory potential to make him a dramatic and awesome villian... So the book that was marketed as his origin story will have awesome backstory right?

No. They explained it in 3 pages... Let that sink in. Flamehearts backstory was explained in 3 pages. THREE PAGES.

Here is everything I DESPISE about this interlude:

• We didn't get interaction between Flameheart and the kids he bullied. The book was like "Yeah he beat up some kids. Lets jump into adulthood!"

• The book suddenly shifted tone. We didn't really see the world from Flamehearts eyes unlike how we saw it from characters eyes (Jill, Jewels, Duke, Ramsey, Flameheart, Slate ETC).

• The whole thing was narrated like "Flameheart did this, this and this"

• The narration was a fast summary of his origin story.

• We never got an insight of Flameheart's thoughts.

• He didn't turn out to be a part of the great warrior soul... But this one is a personal dislike.

And the worst one for last...

• We got no Flameheart Senior - Junior interaction. I cannot put it into words HOW DISSAPOINTED I AM.

The tales from the sea of thieves created the perfect foundation to give Flameheart some sort of a likeable trait. We know he is a great father from it too.

So, I expected Senior telling stories about the Sea Of Thieves while Junior was in his lap, Heart lightening dialouge and interaction between them. How he made sure he did not want for nothing.

But noooope. The whole thing was "Flameheart found a baby in a basket, took him outside the shroud, Did some great father stuff and returned".

Sigh...

@thorumsu

I agree it shouldn't have really been billed as Flameheart's origin story, since we got very, very little of that.

I think part of the reason why we didn't get more around the relationship between Senior and Junior was because it's a different author to Tales from the Sea of Thieves. There are a few inconsistencies between the two books, but that can be explained away as Tales being written from Junior's perspective, rather than reality. He seems to have held his father on a pedestal.

Having those more caring moments from Flameheart's past included here would also have given the reader sympathy and hope of redemption rather than have him as a vicious force of nature, which I think was how he's intended to be perceived. I don't think he's meant to be likeable, he's meant to be feared.

Maybe in the future we'll get more to his character and a redemption arch of sorts - but that's at odds with how he is in the game right now. I think a large part of having Duke's story here is to sow the idea that curses can be reversed and characters can be redeemed.

@realstyli, [SPOILERS!!!] Heart of Fire Novel Discussion içinde yazdı:

@thorumsu

I agree it shouldn't have really been billed as Flameheart's origin story, since we got very, very little of that.

I think part of the reason why we didn't get more around the relationship between Senior and Junior was because it's a different author to Tales from the Sea of Thieves. There are a few inconsistencies between the two books, but that can be explained away as Tales being written from Junior's perspective, rather than reality. He seems to have held his father on a pedestal.

Having those more caring moments from Flameheart's past included here would also have given the reader sympathy and hope of redemption rather than have him as a vicious force of nature, which I think was how he's intended to be perceived. I don't think he's meant to be likeable, he's meant to be feared.

Maybe in the future we'll get more to his character and a redemption arch of sorts - but that's at odds with how he is in the game right now. I think a large part of having Duke's story here is to sow the idea that curses can be reversed and characters can be redeemed.

sympathy and hope of redemption

That is the best part. None of those happen and he becomes a feared, ruthless, bloodthiraty villian all out of his own rage. A tragic story. Kind of like Davy Jones in a way.

Making Flameheart a tragic villian would have been a great way to make people join him. At this point, the only reason to join him are:

• I wonder what would happen

• I am an edge lord.

Also... It is not just the lack of interaction with his son I am mad about. There is still that horrible narration of "Flameheart did this, dis, and dis." We could have gotten the perspective of him like the rest of the novel.

Well thought out post, I thought the novel was excellent. I found the presence of the Ancients in the SotD to be a big reveal in terms of lore, not only does it confirm that the SotD has been around as long as they have but it seems that everything goes to the SotD (Skellies, ancients, mermaids). Also the existence of a ancient ship that seems to be more powerful than any galleon is big, however due to technical limitations I doubt we'll ever see this. One can hope though. I think we will see a lot of this play into the game eventually, as with the AF novel, we have seen almost everything in there show up in game, whether its Larinna, the Sea Dog twins, or even in game references to the Old Mother. Another small reveal in the novel was that the Ashen Dragon is on a rocky islet somewhere in the shroud. I know the Seaboard Soul tall tale said that the AD was in wait, but now we know it is actually harbored somewhere, and Adara is still alive. Something else I found interesting was how it said the Old Horatio was the last of the Ashen Lords, implying that other main 3 (and Harkly) had already been defeated by the time of Flameheart's ritual. Very excited what this book means for the future of SoT!

@realstyli

You should have put this on the normal forums. 90% of the forum users dont even know this place exist. "LORE" should have been a sub category in the SOT game discussion.

@thorumsu

This is the correct forum for it as it's about how the book relates to the lore of the game.

I don't disagree that it should be a sub of Game Discussion, but that's on Rare.

@realstyli, [SPOILERS!!!] Heart of Fire Novel Discussion içinde yazdı:

@thorumsu

This is the correct forum for it as it's about how the book relates to the lore of the game.

I don't disagree that it should be a sub of Game Discussion, but that's on Rare.

Well... I meant that you could have posted this on the Sea of thieves discussion forums and used the "Story And Lore" tag. I dont see a reason why it shouldn't be used.

I have read the book recently now myself. (Twice in a row in fact, that's how much I loved it). I do agree with others posts about being disappointed with the lack if backstory for Flameheart, but overall, the fleshing out of the characters from the Morningstar was amazing. And introducing such a diverse cast of new people to add more dimension to the story was a joy to read.

My theory on Jewels and Karin's journey to save Scraps:

They do indeed succeed. With help from none other than Sir Arthur Pendragon. My reasoning for this is that the descriptions for the characters of Jewels, Karin, and Scraps line up well with the in-game crew mates we help Pendragon save in the Heart of Fire Tall Tale. I know that the Origins comics tells us who Pendragon was saving, but those folk don't look anything like the in-game crew we actually see.

So Karin and Jewels sail around for a while, looking for any information on how to set souls free, as well as looking for the chest with Scraps' soul inside. During this time, Pendragon sets sail for a haunted ship in the wider world, learns about the Sea of Thieves, makes his crossing into her waters, and starts making a name for himself. Madame Olivia learns of him, makes him her champion.

The ladies get word of a pirate able to set trapped souls free, and they sail out to meet Pendragon. Maybe they have the chest at this point, maybe not. Pendragon listens to their tale and helps them out. Perhaps it was while sailing to find the chest, or after Scraps was freed, and they all celebrated, but the three wayward pirates joined Pendragons crew and sailed with him for a while.

I'd really like to learn more about Duke, and how exactly he fell into working with the Dark Brethren, and if his past with Flameheart will come back to haunt him.