What is The Emerald Abode?

THIS OVERVIEW IS OUTDATED, I AM GOING TO REDO SOME OF IT SOONThe Emerald Abode is a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel series where monsters rage the earth beyond the safety of Aurora's walls. After the mysterious disappearance of her best friend Holland, AJ takes upon the daunting task of slaying beasts in order to do the same to her rent payment. What would begin out of pure necessity, however, soon takes a hairier turn as she finds herself knee-deep in an abyss that only sinks deeper the further she clambers out...A chillingly distorted lens of the world she once knew makes her doubt the roles that define her society. Even the blankest of minds are flecked with a microscopic, acidic red penetrating from deep down, and it happens to be that the murder weapon injects itself quite well; much deeper than her world was intended to be.

The Emerald Abode: Volume 1

• Read the original Chapter 1 right now!

• what's the status? --->

Status Update 1/1/2026

a possible change in direction

Let me just start this off with a good ol' Happy New Year! Let's put 2025 behind us and get a fresh outlook on things, whether it be through a new years resolution or just taking life a day at a time. Now for the fun stuff:For the longest time now I've been wondering if a novel is the right medium for something like TEA. As good as I feel I am at descriptive writing, I sometimes struggle to get the image in my head into words, and the actual events often get lost in the fuzz. This is not to say I'm giving up, of course - I know with a bit of practice and suggestions I could really sharpen the tip, but I'm starting to wonder if I really want to. Writing and reading have never been a #1 and 2 for me; I've always enjoyed drawing a lot more, and so I feel like the story would be easier to express and stay motivated with in a visual medium. Plus, I think a lot of scenes would really pop out of the panels, so to speak.There's also the issue of competing with the book publishing industry, which is a whole legal swamp I'd like to avoid as an independent artist. Not that there isn't the possibility of TEA getting published at some point, but I want as much creative control over the process as possible, and dealing with Disney-esque executive censorship from publishers sounds like a great way to water down the story into a "one size fits all" nothing burger. I could always self publish, but that doesn't fix the issue of needing to manage the book like a business. I also simply feel like it would get lost in the noise as a book, considering just how many are written every year. Maybe the story (or aspects of it) has already been done a thousand times, but I think I can still express it in my own way, which goes back to the point I made about being able to express myself more clearly through visuals.I'm also realizing that letting people discover and enjoy the art I make is a lot more important to me than making a few bucks off of it. Sure, money would be nice, but I'd much rather see people enjoying the story than being barred from doing so just because they don't have the money to buy it. Plus, it's a lot harder to get people interested both while it's in-the-works and after it's finished. I'd like to publish the story in the form of acts, but that would make it impossible to sell the story, so why sell it at all? I think of the money as more of a bonus, anyway; if people want to donate at some point to show their appreciation, then great, that helps me out! If not, I'll still be satisfied that people enjoy the things I create.There are a few problems with these new approaches, of course. To turn TEA into a comic/graphic novel series would throw an entirely new element into planning, and it'd make large changes to the story hard to reverse once I began coloring/shading large swaths of pages. Plus, drawing takes far longer to do than writing, so I would need to stay on top of it rather frequently to make any progress. I'd need to set some limits for myself, of course, such as no fine details or excessively realistic shading; I can always remaster the work later if the standards become higher over time. I'd also need to find a site (or sites) to host the work while mitigating plagiarism; I'd be looking for longevity, so a site backed by corporate-headed individuals as its main home would not be the ideal. Something like AO3 but for independent media would be better, but I'm not aware of any sites like AO3 that let you post comics or graphic novels (other than maybe Newgrounds, which limits discoverability if you're not verified by somebody already known). I have yet to research this, of course.Switching to a comic format would also mean a good chunk of progress made on TEA would be lost, since only the story itself would remain charted out. That's why I'm still considering the change, but I suppose it'd be better to switch now than halfway through the entire series; In the grand scheme of things, 3 chapters is nothing. I've gone through much bigger transitions, so why couldn't I handle this? Either way, I know I'll be proud of the work in the end, even with all of the faults it's bound to have.

Status Update 10/26/2025

navigating the labyrinth that is planning and changing

how do i begin this...I am better 🫠🫠🫠👍👍👍👍👍I'm making some pretty decent progress on TEA; for the most part, Act One is completely planned out and ready to write! To give an idea as to how much progress that is, Act One is three chapters long, each chapter being roughly 4,000 words. I've already finished writing Chapter 1 and have started Chapter 2, so I hope to have wrapped up Act One by the beginning of my winter break (December 12th). I expect progress to speed up in December and January, since I have a whopping 5 weeks off!!!However, this doesn't mean the rest of the book will be smooth sailing! Act One, for starters, is the shortest of the three acts, while Act Two is going to be by far the longest! I can already project Act Two being at least double the length of Act One, and that means 24,000 more words of plot, world building, character development, and absolutely no filler! As you may already know, I have never written a novel before and still have yet to navigate what constitutes as filler and poor pacing, so dear sky daddy of all-knowing video essay analysis YouTubers help me because I have not a clue as to what I'm doing!

my manic, maniacal nonsense that shall soon be translated into a form digestible by the general public.

Even once I finish writing, that'll only account for about 50% of the progress! I still have to go through and edit the book for typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes that tear the fabric of my universe apart and make me start over from scratch! (Ideally, using the power of my hopes and dreams, that won't happen. One can hope). There's also a few glaring issues I'll need to address with the first chapter, since it kind of decides which readers I'm going to keep for the next... I don't know... 15-ish years of writing the entire series? I'm worried the bulk of it drags on, as well as lacking some of the most important characterization for AJ. Come to think of it, the first chapter is kind of like the vital development period for a baby's life, except in book form. But unlike with babies, I can retroactively fix all of those mistakes once I have a clear view of what the end product is going to look like. Also, the book isn't going to whine at me for bad parenting.On top of learning how to chart out the skeleton of my life's most prized work, I am simultaneously having to learn how to chart out the next stage of my life itself. The thought of having to feed myself, work for my own money, fill up my resume, and chart out a career path felt like it would've existed in the realms of science fiction just a couple of years back, but I have since discovered that it's hurling towards me at a pace I can't outrun. On top of that, the fact that I anticipate to enter a year-long foreign exchange program immediately after high school and then move to a state on the other side of the continent the moment I step back onto familiar soil has sort of made a tiny dent in my previous future plans. There won't be much time to polish up TEA once I finish writing the first draft, nor will I be able to find many beta readers that I'm comfortable sharing the draft with in that other country (which would not be predominantly English-speaking) or in the new state. That's why I hope to wrap up the first draft as speedily as possible, but in the end, my own life takes utmost priority.On the less daunting side of things, I've been doing some mad science in the past few months and have found myself wholly satisfied! Back in August, I made the decision to dump my Windows 10 installation entirely and become one with the penguin gods, and I am pleased to say that I was able to get my Windows workflow back within just a few weeks of tinkering! Most of the applications I used on Windows (including my note-taking app/writer program, Obsidian) are Linux native, and I was able to find viable alternatives for those that aren't. It helped that I specifically chose an operating system that's stable, has a large community, and has a similar layout to Windows (Linux Mint), since that makes it a whole lot easier for a dummy like me to actually USE Linux and not spend a year learning how to hack it. As a bonus, all of my Steam and non-Steam games run just like on Windows!!!

my really smeggsy desktop

While I'm on the topic of switching to new things, I thought I should also add onto the update I gave a few weeks ago on the future of my music composing. I've decided that I'm settling with LMMS; while I'm not ready to make new tracks for TEA yet, I've done enough experimentation to know that I can quickly become comfortable using it. I still need to import a few missing soundfonts, build a new library of royalty-free sound effects, and figure out how to work with automations, but once I've nailed down those basics, expect to see a new song in the OST by the beginning of January!There's probably a whole lot more that I could discuss, but I've exhausted myself writing this (and don't want to exhaust you any further), so I will leave you off with one of my favorite samples from Chapter 2! Take care, and thanks for reading once again!

Status Update 10/7/2025

i copied and pasted this from youtube community posts so it might be formatted weird (oh well)Also, I didn't mention this on YouTube, but I have resumed progress on TEA and am currently rewriting the first chapter! I will post a status update soon covering more of my progress, as well as updates on my situation in general.---I know I'm already not the most active, but uploads as far as new music goes will be on a halt until I can investigate a new DAW that isn't BandLab. I've already been concerned with BandLab's overly-corporate/"freemium" direction for a while, but I've finally reached the last straw with some of their latest paywalls on previously free features. Unfortunately, while finding a middle-of-the-ground DAW that isn't rocket science nor just drag n' drop is already challenging enough, the fact that I've recently switched to Linux and can no longer run many Windows applications poses its own challenges... Besides, I would have to find alternatives to some of my favorite soundfonts and effects, as well as learn how to use the new program. Even if I were to find one by tomorrow, the learning curve would still be too great to make a new song outside of experimental quality. LMMS is looking promising, but it could take a while to settle with a program I'm comfortable with. I will post an update when I'm working on the first song I plan to upload created in the new program. Thanks for understandinggggggggggggggg

Status Update 7/14/2025

For the 1 person out there reading this, this project is not dead, don't worry! It's just on indefinite hold until I can get back up on my feet.This project will never die so long as this body contains a mind...This school year sorta destroyed me and I've spent most of my summer wallowing around surviving on the scraps of gratitude that leak from the thought of possibly beating my first SC in EToH. In other words: I have been unbearably miserable for months now and most of my summer has been spent coping for the ludicrous amount of burnout my brain would have never known before this year. That's why I'm going to spend the rest of this summer trying to better my health and get into a more normal lifestyle before tackling anything that requires an ounce of brainpower; I'm simply not ready for that right now. However, none of this has stopped the ideas from bouncing around in my head by day and by night, which is why I feel The Emerald Abode will become one of my top priorities once I turn my life around towards a better direction. Of course, there's no specific date in mind for the project to resume, but my goal is for it to be sometime before 2026.I've found the beginning of the story flowing in a new direction as I plan it out in my head, so the current chapter 1 draft will more than likely be scrapped. However, it will remain available to read for those who want a taste of what's to come, and I may consider posting the new draft as well (once I finish it).In the meantime, check out my latest works on YouTube and BlueSky. Though the story progress will be stagnant until I restore a little peace of mind, I will continue making works relating to it whenever I feel like it. :)Thanks for reading.

Questions that people have asked me before!

[Q]: When will the series be finished?
[A]: Good question! No clue tbh but I hope to have Volume 1 done by sometime in 2027 or 2028.[Q]: How long will the series be?
[A]: I'm thinking like... 8 books, ish. Give or take.[Q]: Will there be adaptations (such as animations)?
[A]: I'd have to consider anything animation related since that takes a lot of time (and voice actors). I'm focusing on the web comic first.[Q]: Why does a web comic series have an OST???
[A]: For fun, mostly. I might put it to use if I ever make a graphic novel adaptation and scrape together voice actors for a comic dub.[Q]: When will the OST be on Spotify?
[A]: Whenever I learn how to sign a legal document.[Q]: Do you have any other socials besides the ones listed on this site?
[A]: I have Reddit but I open that like, once a year, so not worth listing. As for other socials? No, and I don't plan on getting more unless the series starts to find a fan base.

Answers to questions that nobody asked!

[Q]: is danior a furry
[A]: no.[Q]: who is danior
[A]: you'll find out.