The Cathay map was offline for a short time when RedBrick “moved”. That’s why the link at the download section was gone too. But thanks to Kathy Schad who gave Drucifer her permission to showcase the map(s) on his Carthography gallery, I can tell you:

The Cathay map is back

It’s interview time again!!!! Some weeks ago I stumbled upon a Wikipedia entry where the RedBrick novels are listed. And what did my tired eyes see? “A Forgotten Tomorrow – TBA”. This led me to the idea to make another interview with Hank Woon, the author of the so-far two Cathay novels, to find out what the actual state of the third novel is. So here we go:

Again I am very happy that the story of Daylen Jagaro will fill another book. In our interview about the second novel „Immortal Twilight", you told us that the idea of the sequel came when Jacques Marcotte made an offhand comment about how the story could develop. Did you need such a push again for writing the third novel “A Forgotten Tomorrow”? Or was it clear after "Immortal Twilight", that you had to write a third book?

The basis for the third book came about during the writing of the second. The complete story couldn't really be told in just the second book, and I was already writing down notes for the third while writing the second.

Will the third novel of your Cathay saga be the last? Or were you planning to make it a quadrology?

Yes, it's set to just be a trilogy.

What is the actual state of the novel?

The outline has been finished for a couple years now. Only the prologue has actually been written at this stage, however.

Assuming that the main characters of the previous two novels, like Bik-Bik, Su Shen and Bei, will still play a big part in „A Forgotten Tomorrow", who else will step on the scene?

There will be some cool new villains (as well as some old ones) that are part of a new secret society. There will be a Samurai character involved, whose own quest is  tired up with the quest of our main cast, and Bik-Bik will get to meet someone special… In addition, the Ka-Li dragon and what that represents will be explored more fully (which can, in a way, be interpreted as a character, I suppose), and another famous character from the first novel will return (there is a clear tie in with some elements that were set up in the first novel, bringing the trilogy full circle).

This third novel will be the first released since the Cathay sourcebooks are on the market too. Do you now go deeper into the land and the culture of Cathay (if even possible) or do you pick up some stories that are told in the sourcebooks?  Did the sourcebooks influence or change your writing?

The sourcebooks were written first, and in that way, I guess they influenced my novels. The novels really are just magnified moments of Daylen's life as he was writing the sourcebooks, before returning with his journals to the Great Library back in Throal.

When you look back at the two previous novels, „Dark Shadows of Yesterday" and „Immortal Twilight", is it hard to end the wonderful journey of Daylen Jagaro? Did you expect to get him that far when you started to write the first novel?

Well, there are still many tales left for Daylen Jagaro. Whether any of them will be told is a mystery, but the Cathay trilogy really only covers his adventures with Su Shen and Bei. There is a year gap between the first and second novels, and a 6-month gap between the second and third. That's a year and a half total of adventures just waiting to be told. If the Earthdawn novels ever pick up steam and go into a more widespread production, it would be fun to add some of these little tales to some anthologies, or better still, get other authors to tell some of these mini stories of Daylen and Bik-Bik (which would be a lot of fun for me to read). But unfortunately, it doesn't look like the publishing industry is heading in that direction, so it's likely “A Forgotten Tomorrow” will be Daylen's last, but you never know.

On a side note, if a Jih'Poh sourcebook is ever written, I'd like it also to be from Daylen's POV (whether or not I'm the writer on that or not). In the meantime, keep an eye out for my upcoming Earthdawn adventure Lost Dynasty, which I wrote back in 2004 and delves into the ancient human kingdom of Landis.

What can you already tell us about the story of the third novel „A Forgotten Tomorrow"? What about Yen-Li and his "comrade"?

Well, without getting too spoilerific, the third novel will be set 6 months after the events in Immortal Twilight. Yen-Li and his comrade are the main antagonists, but there are even larger powers at work behind the scenes. As I already mentioned, a new secret society with new colorful (and powerful) secondary villains will be introduced, as well as some new characters to travel alongside our heroes.

By the beginning of the novel, Daylen has become a bit of a philanthropist, traveling Cathay in hopes of learning as much as he can about Cathayan culture for the Great Library back home and trying to help those affected by the war whenever he can. Of course, the villains still have their own goals, and poor Daylen gets swept right back up in it. The story will also hearken back to events in the first novel, shedding light on events that transpired there and adding new twists to the tale.

The first two novels were released in 2008 and 2009. Considering that you had to work on the Cathay sourcebooks too, I ask myself when you could possibly finish "A Forgotten Tomorrow". And then there is RedBrick, always cautious spreading release dates, but when do you hope to get the novel published?

Well, I'm not exactly sure when I can get around to it. The Cathay sourcebooks were actually finished before the first two novels (the drafts were handed in back in August of 2005). I haven't had as much time in the past couple of years to do much writing because of my day jobs. I had worked a temporary stint with Paizo Publishing back in 2009, helping with the big launch of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, then did some contract work with Microsoft and Expedia before finally landing a permanent gig with The Pokémon Company International. During all of that I was running a Pathfinder campaign for some friends (still ongoing); freelance writing, editing, and designing for both Earthdawn and Pathfinder; and somewhere in there somehow managed to get married and write and sell a screenplay for a straight-to-DVD network movie (to start filming in June 2012—won't say for who or what network though, since that's secret!).

Nowadays, though, I'm mainly busy with family obligations and my day job. Working for Pokémon is the best career I could have hoped to have landed (I actually just made the transition from contract to full time earlier this year), and while it's a lot of fun, it's also very demanding. In what little spare time I have (and trust me, that's not a lot), I try to enjoy my hobbies (including the Pathfinder campaign I'm running and an unpublished, "just for fun" play-by-email strategy wargame I designed based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series), study Japanese (my wife is from Tokyo), and maintain some semblance of a social life.

It will get finished someday, though. The dust from the chaos of the last two years is still settling. Once I get some time, I'll be plugging away at it chapter by chapter, posting them up on RedBrick's developer forums for the team to dissect bit by bit. It will be much slower going than the previous two, especially since it might be a big longer as well, but in the end, it will be worth the wait. I'm already finished with the Prologue, and the team has had access to it for some time, so the process has already begun.

I thank you for for the interview and I’m looking forward to hold the third book in my hands, someday.

The Cathay pictures of this post were used with kind permission by RedBrick and can be found at their Download Section.

Last day in February and to remind you of the upcoming Cathay books (shipping date March 2011, according to Mongoose) I decided to entertain you with a puzzle again. 77 pieces await you! Rotate the pieces by picking them with left click and using the right mouse button. Play it in full screen for better overview. Enjoy!

Well Mongoose publishing releases almost every month an issue of Signs & Portents wherein they offer free stuff of their RPG systems. We already saw some content for Earthdawn in the issues # 72, # 74 and # 84,  but as I read today on the Earthdawn forum, the newest issue of Signs & Portents # 88 is out. I wouldn’t report about it if there wasn’t a very interesting Earthdawn chapter with an excerpt of the upcoming Cathay books in it. Additional information about the discipline of the Daughter of Heaven are included, one of the 11 new disciplines that come with the release of the Cathay sourcebooks.

But additionally, as the title of this article says, the character stats of the most well known Daughter of Heaven are completely listed. The stats of Su Shen one of the protagonists of the novels Dark Shadows of Yesterday and Immortal Twilight written by Hank Woon can nowhere else be found, as my buddy Sethariel told me, which means that they aren’t included in the Cathay books and can only be found in the freely available #88 at the Signs & Portents archive. Enjoy!

Ho ho ho, looks like early Christmas presents are on the run! The recent Cathay moves of RedBrick keep on going. The new Cathay map can be found at the Free Download section at RedBrick.com.
(via Sethariel)

Interesting news! The RedBrick crew announced the Cathay – The Five Kingdoms – Players Guide for December 2010. Now it looks like that the first steps are taken to announce the publication of the first Cathay book. At DriveThru.com and RPGnow the Cathay – Player’s Guide is already available as PDF for just $24.50, including a preview.  So the first early Christmas present is about to arrive.

(via RedBrick forum)

Almost only one month to go until the first Cathay sourcebook will be available. To sweeten the waiting Kathy released again some artwork of the Cathay books. The one on the left displays the horror Yao Mo finding his preferred prey (never drink too much Jiu or Sake!!). Further new b/w illustrations can be found on Kathy’s deviantART page (thx to Sethariel). But that’s not all that I want to highlight with this article.
Recently the book covers done by Paul Tobin of both Cathay books, Cathay: The Five Kingdoms Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide, were released. The Gamemaster’s Guide’s cover on the left displays a battle or even a civil war scenery, the weird guy on the cover of the Player’s Guide (right) is Bei a jade obsidimen (please correct me if I am wrong) who is one of the protagonists of the novels Dark Shadows of Yesterday and Immortal Twilight written by Hank Woon.

The Cathay: The Five Kingdoms Player’s Guide can now be pre-ordered at Amazon.com for $23.09 (with a predicted release for Jan 11th ‘11) and at Mongoose Publishing for £24.99 (with a predicted release in December ‘10)

Dammi posted on his Red Brick LLC blog some artwork previews of the upcoming Cathay: The Five Kingdoms books (Players Guide coming in December Gamemasters Guide in January). The preview artworks feature several artists so far, like Peter Tikos & Richard Vass, David M. Wright and Jeff Laubenstein. The Cathay sourcebooks open up a new chapter for Earthdawn, offering players and gamemasters a completely new world, set up in the far East and introducing new races, disciplines, talents and and and.
I’ve already made an interview with Hank Woon and Dammi back in 2008. The interview offers some insights about the work and the content of the originally planned classic version of Cathay, so it’s not up to date but still informative.

UPDATE: The series of Cathay artwork previews ends with the works of Kathy Schad. But additionally Kathy uploaded further artwork previews at the Earthdawn DeviantArt gallery. Go there!

Today I received the long awaited Earthdawn novel “Immortal Twilight”, sequel to “Dark Shadows of Yesterday”. I ordered it on 4th October, so it took LULU 9 days to print and sent it to Germany, what is very acceptable. The quality of the book is great, but after the first look I realized that there are no illustrations inside, hey why?, ok excepting the map of Daylen Jagaro.



Even this time the right book is under the cover (?) and I gonna read the 305 pages with pleasure and a dictionary on hand. Yes, my English isn’t good enough for some special expressions Hank uses in his books, but I improve with every book. Tschaka.

A few days ago I discovered a post of Dammi at the german fantasy forum Tanelorn wherein he announced some interesting news about an upcoming novel written by Hank Woon. So I decided to interview him about his new novel "Immortal Twilight". I hope you enjoy it.


First of all I am happy to hear about the sequel of "Dark Shadows of Yesterday" called "Immortal Twilight". When I read the first book it was clear for me that a sequel has to be made. Was it planned to write a second part? Is it actually a second part?

The option for a sequel was always there, and I had many disconnected ideas for one while writing the first (hence the foreshadowing at the end), but it really wasn’t until after the first book was published when the story for the sequel started coming together.
I can actually thank one of the editors from Dark Shadows of Yesterday, Jacques Marcotte, for speeding this process along. Though I had some ideas already, I didn’t think I would get around to writing a sequel for quite some time. Then a certain line in the novel caused Jacques to make an offhand comment about how he could imagine the Eight Immortals of the Tower of Secrets, someday in the future, calling upon Daylen Jagaro for his services and thus prompting a new adventure. Though that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, one of the seeds I had for the sequel involved the Immortals (and in particular their magic), and because of his comment I began picking at it. As I tugged on those threads, the mysteries of the plot slowly began to unravel; revealing themselves to me, and then it all sort of fell quickly into place.


How strong is the connection to the first book, could I read "Immortal Twilight" without having read Dark Shadows of Yesterday?

The connection to the first novel is very strong, but it is easy to follow the second without having read the first. Since there are many allusions to Dark Shadows of Yesterday, the reader will no doubt get more satisfaction if he or she reads the original prior, though.


Please tell us what the book will be about. Do you continue the story about the journey of Daylen Jagaro in Cathay or did choose to write about other protagonists?

The sequel takes place just over a year after the events of the first novel, and it is the continuation of Daylen and his adventures in Cathay. The story features several familiar faces (plus several new ones), both heroes and villains. More of Cathay and its history are revealed, and we even get to see some new POVs of some of the original cast.


What is the actual state of the novel?

The draft was actually turned in just over three months ago, and right now it is nearing the end of the editing phase. After that it goes to layout, a final review, and then off to FASA for approval.


The poll at earthdawn.com crowned "Dark Shadows of Yesterday" as the personal favorite of several fans (even when it was close). Did you imagine that the book would earn such a great response and what do you expect from "Immortal Twilight"?

I’m very glad the reviews have been favorable so far (I actually voted for The Longing Ring!), and I hope the novel inspires a fun session or two (and inspires people to want to explore Cathay!). I personally believe—and this has been confirmed by the opinions of the editors so far—that Immortal Twilight is an even better story than Dark Shadows of Yesterday, so I imagine that anyone who likes the original will also enjoy the sequel.


When thinking about that you now wrote two excellent novels taking place in Cathay, did you ever think about writing other novels taking place in Barsaive? What can we expect next from you?

A trilogy is planned for the Cathay novels, actually; there is still one more adventure of Daylen’s to tell. I have a title, and I have several pages of notes, but I haven’t started on it as yet. It may be a while before I get around to it, actually. And yes, I do have seeds of ideas for stories set in Barsaive and in the Theran Empire (one in Vasgothia that I have had in my mind for quite some time now, especially). But those are all on the backburner… for now…


I know you’re not stating release dates. But we can certainly dream of a Christmas present!

Haha, well, I’m not sure exactly how much more time it will take, but I think Dammi’s latest guesstimate was early ’09. It doesn’t have too much farther to go, but Christmas is just around the corner, so I’m not too sure we can make it by then… but never say never, right? =)


Thanks for the interview!

You bet, anytime!

The following interview was held between me and Hank Woon (thanks to Dammi), author of the upcoming Earthdawn Novel "Dark Shadows of Yesterday".

Would you short introduce yourself?

You bet! My name is Hank Woon, and who I am and what my relationship is with Redbrick Limited can be found on their website.

When and how did you come to write "Dark Shadows of Yesterday?"

Throughout the Cathay sourcebook, there are many legendary stories, though many are brief and simple allusions to heroes and villains past (especially in the new magical items chapter). Most such entries demand a succinct description, but I found that even when I was finished with them the stories continued on in my mind. Likewise, throughout the sourcebook there are hints of the many adventures that Daylen Jagaro went through while exploring Cathay, and though only small slices of his experiences make it into the sourcebook, I tried to envision his epic journey in detail. At first, this more in-depth, behind-the-scenes back story was merely to add weight, flavor, and consistency to the sourcebook, but as time went on, Daylen’s many trials became more and more interesting to me. Then last December, my hometown was blasted by a powerful storm with winds equivalent to a Level Three hurricane, and I found myself without electricity for eight days. During that time I read five novels that I had been putting off, which really put me in that frame of mind, and one of them was Shroud of Madness, an Earthdawn novel by Carl Sargent & Marc Gascoigne. Since it was an Earthdawn novel, I found that while reading it my mind kept wandering back to Daylen, and without any effort of my own, many of these back story ideas I had for the sourcebook began coalescing. A short time after I regained power, I jotted down a framework, and a couple days after Christmas I started writing.

What's the actual state of the novel?

I finished the novel 58 days after starting. The draft was already finished before I began, in my mind at least, so all I had to do was get it out of me and into print (it also helped that while writing it I was taking 2 literature classes at Washington State University, so I had all of these inspiring novels to draw from). After I turned it in, the talented team of editors at Redbrick read it—sometimes more than once—and offered their criticisms, then revisions ensued, and then it went into layout. I’m actually working on the sequel right now. I had no intention of writing a sequel, but just like the first, ideas kept coming, and the story fell into place too perfectly not to tell. So last week I started writing, and I’m about 20,000 words in so far.

I know that it’s hard to tell us a release date, but approximately when could it come out?

Hm…well, it could come out very soon. Redbrick doesn’t like to set dates, because that could lead to disappointment if something changes, but the novel is all done, there is an awesome cover done by the mega-talented Kathy Schad (see preview), and it’s just basically awaiting approval from the fine folks at FASA.

You already offered a small piece of information about the content in the interview about the Cathay sourcebook. It will be about the merchant Daylen Jagaro. What else can you tell us about the book?

When writing it, I realized that it would be the first glimpse of Cathay for many readers, so the story is Daylen’s first adventure in this new land. Readers will learn about Cathay as Daylen does, seeing it for the first time through the eyes of a fellow Barsaivian, as it were. (Much like the original Earthdawn setting was seen for the first time through the eyes of J’role the Honorable Thief in Christopher Kubasik’s The Longing Ring.)

Thank you very much and good luck with the novel, I can't wait to read it.

You’re welcome, and thanks for the interest. I hope you enjoy it!

The following interview was held between me, Carsten Damm and Hank Woon, regarding the upcoming Earthdawn sourcebook Cathay: The Five Kingdoms.

Is there a cover preview?

Carsten Damm: Sure thing, have a look. The cover is being done by Paul Tobin, who also created the cover for the Name-giver’s Compendium. It’s an early draft, of course, and not yet finished—proper coloration and detail are yet missing.

Tell us about the Five Kingdoms--what are these?

Hank Woon: The shining empire of Cathay has fallen on dark times. Shortly after the Scourge, the imperial dynasty that ruled over the land for countless generations ended abruptly and without an heir. Dictated by ancient custom and tradition, the Five Guardians of Cathay—great dragons of incredible power—seized the Five Symbols of Imperial Power and set out across the land in search for a new ruler. Each found a champion and bestowed upon him or her one of the symbols along with the words, “One must rule.” The five kingdoms were born, and the empire has been locked in civil war ever since, with none of the kingdoms so far able to gain an advantage in this, one of the bloodiest conflicts the Earthdawn world has ever seen.

Will there be new Name-giver races? If yes, mind to tell us about them?

Hank Woon: Yes, there will be four new playable Name-giver races (and one familiar Name-giver race will be unavailable in Cathay). The new races are the ki mao, a xenophobic race of elves whose bodies are striped with the markings of a tiger and whose eyes resemble those of a cat’s; the po na, a race of monkey-like humanoids, driven by curiosity and with a love of practical jokes, and who are the traditional enemy of the ki mao; the gar, a race of savage warrior-elves who, long ago banished to the harsh northern steppes to a certain doom, have not only survived but have become a great threat to the Five Kingdoms; and finally the storm children: sometimes, during the most violent thunderstorms, lightning kisses the ground and leaves behind a fully grown Name-giver who resembles a human, but whose solid-white eyes give away their true nature as storm children. Born with essential knowledge for survival, storm children are driven with an insatiable need to explore and learn as much as they can. Over time, they can even unlock their innate powers, which mimic those of the tempest.

Will there be new Disciplines? If yes, mind to tell us about them?

Hank Woon: There will be eleven new Disciplines for Cathay. They are the Beastlord, an adept who can awaken the animal spirits from his past lives within himself and manifest these powers through talents, abilities, and summoned creatures; the Daughter of Heaven, an adept who dedicates her life to protecting and healing those innocent souls who are caught in the middle of the violent conflicts that ravage the once mighty empire; the Gar Warrior, a nomadic raider who is part Archer, Cavalryman, and Warrior; the Guardian of Cathay, elite adepts whose noble order has protected the interests of the empire since its founding, but now, like the empire it was created to defend, has split into five distinct factions; the Merchant, entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of the war to seize a profit; the Monk, adepts who seclude themselves from civilization to dedicate themselves to Lung Do, or The Way of the Dragon; the Pugilist, an exhibitionist fighter who uses his fists to pummel his opponent into submission; the Samurai, an elite warrior caste found in the neighboring island nation of Jih’Po; the Scholar, adepts who, trained out of Cathay’s fabled Tower of Secrets, search the lands for knowledge, both magical and mundane, for the interests of the empire; the Sorcerer, a magician whose transformation spells make them feared throughout the land; and finally the Sword Dancer, Cathay’s exotic adepts whose martial dances tell the legends and stories of heroes past, carving the legends of tomorrow with steel and blood.
Each new discipline has new Talents, new Talent Knacks, and new fiction, similar to the entries found in the Earthdawn Player’s Compendium and Name-giver’s Compendium that explains their unique philosophical outlooks.

Is Cathay a Theran province?

Hank Woon: No, Cathay is not a Theran province, though the Therans do have a presence—both political and militarily—in one of the Five Kingdoms…

What about the relations between Barsaive and Cathay? We know Urupa is the only port for folks from the East, so how come there is a connection now?

Hank Woon: While there have always been the occasional western smuggler, Cathay long ago sealed its borders to the West. However, the civil war has finally forced the Five Kingdoms to redact their official isolationist policies in order to secure the resources they need to continue their bloody conflict.
Barsaive has only recently made contact with Cathay, pioneered by the human merchant of Bartertown, Daylen Jagaro (fictional writer of the sourcebook and protagonist of the upcoming Earthdawn novel: Dark Shadows of Yesterday).

About Cathay in general—what can we expect?

Hank Woon: You can expect it to be very Earthdawnish. While some have voiced their concerns about Cathay being nothing more than another “Ancient China” setting, unless you feel that Barsaive is “just another” Medieval Europe or Renaissance-type fantasy setting, we can assure you that it is anything but. You can expect several new magical items, a new Goods and Services chapter that details dozens and dozens of new Cathayan weapons, armor, and items, a Bestiary chapter with over 60 new creatures, Horrors, Named Horrors, Horror constructs, and unique dragon entries, new spells for both the new Sorcerer discipline and the familiar magician disciplines, new Secret Societies, and a whole lot more.

What will the approximate pagecount and price be?

Carsten Damm: We think that the Cathay book will be about the same size as the Name-giver’s Compendium and Nations of Barsaive, Volume One. Can’t say for certain at this point, as the book is still in development.

When will the book be out?

Carsten Damm: We don’t have deadlines and don’t announce release dates. Cathay: The Five Kingdoms is scheduled to be released after Kratas: The City of Thieves, but things might take a bit longer as it consists of all-new material and needs an entire set of new artwork. There’s a Cathay novel coming out (Dark Shadows of Yesterday, mentioned above), and you might even see Nations of Barsaive, Volume Two earlier than Cathay in case we need more time to get it right.

It's a completely new Earthdawn book. Was it harder to write and develop it? What problems did you encounter?

Hank Woon: There have been no real problems with the creation of this sourcebook other than the time it takes to ensure a solid product. There are a lot of new talents, talent knacks, spells, magical items, creatures (with new powers), and so forth, all of which must pass through the gauntlet of editors for quality and balance. Special care was taken to not create anything that is redundant—or that overshadows—existing material.
We also had to make sure that the sourcebook will be useful for those gamemasters who don’t intend on taking their players to the East, which is why there are plenty of new Disciplines, spells, magical items, and creatures that gamemasters can use to bring new life to Barsaive. Likewise, we wanted to make sure that each of the new Disciplines have plenty of inherent reasons for adventuring, so as to take the burden off of gamemasters, making it easier for them to rationalize their involvement in whatever epic tale in which they will be swept up.

Finally, share some personal comments about the book and the work on it!

Hank Woon: When Cassy Petrich, Craig Guarisco, and I wrote the original draft of this sourcebook three years ago, we were very mindful about one thing in particular: conflict. Conflict drives drama, whether it be man vs. man, man vs. beast, man vs. self, and so on, and all can be found in the pages of this sourcebook. It was our goal to seed Cathay: The Five Kingdoms with inspiration on every page, from the seemingly trivial fluff to the game mechanics. It was our hope to not only create an exciting and richly detailed setting, but a sourcebook that gamemasters might be able to flip open, read a paragraph or two, and be inspired for that evening’s session.
The editing and development team at Redbrick is currently busy ensuring that our original goal will become a reality, while at the same time, being careful to make certain the sourcebook rings true with the existing Earthdawn products we all know and love, both structurally and thematically (hence why we resisted the use of overly flowery names when a simple one would do: in Earthdawn, a thief is just a Thief, a warrior just a Warrior, so too is a monk just a Monk and a samurai just a Samurai).
Together, we will make sure the door to the East will finally be opened, revealing dozens of new and powerful antagonists, incredibly exotic settings, priceless treasures, and a whole new realm of adventures…

I want to thank Carsten Damm and Hank Woon for the interview.