The Introduction

The story of how Phantasia came to the human world, involving her journey to the World Axis.

I won’t say much about any changes – and there are some major ones – because to speak of them would be to ruins some pretty big plot points :p

Chapters

The Induction

Where Phantasia arrives in the human world and is enlisted at the Academy (or, in the first and second revisions, high school)

The narrative was slightly expanded in the third (current) version, but not by much.

Chapters

Hawks and Ravens

Where Phantasia tries to make friends, and finds both Hawk and Raven subcultures are victims of a shadowy entity feeding off their negative emotions.

Many scenes from the first revision were excised in the second, but restored in the third – with the exception of Induction IV’s main plot, which involved Phantasia engaging in a race with Hermia and Korrigan, which was reused later on in the third draft.

Chapters

Confronting the Leansidhe

Where Phantasia, with the help of Phoenie and her friends, tracks down the shadow entity.

The role of Veritas was expanded in the second revision, with more development added, including the first, failed attempt at tracking down the leansidhe (which was simply called a ‘wraith’ in the first two revisions)

Chapters

Godhand Makes its Move

Where, thanks to previous events, Godhand takes action against Phantasia and her friends.

This is where the story really starts to change and develop. Of the story posted online, many of the previous chapters were simply redrafts of previous versions, but here I started writing new material and developing things. If you’re wondering why I haven’t published any collected volumes yet, it’s because I want to give that first batch of chapters the treatment the rest of the story has received!

In the original revision, Godhand were simply a local religious cult led by an overzealous Wotan. The second revision didn’t change this much, other than making Godhand a more internatonal force with greater motives than taking over the town, and the involvement of Diffaith and Yosei (in the first revision, a nameless faerie was used to demonstrate the villain’s power, and the vulnerability of faeries to human emotions.).

The current version introduced elements such as Phantasia’s capture (originally she led the infiltration), the Wotan/Payne relationship, the character of Apeliotes, and the Patriarch (originally Wotan became a demon, while in the second revision his second-in-command was turned into one by Diffaith,who played a more prominent role. The initial infiltration was almost expanded upon, as originally it only spanned two chapters!

Chapters

Grimoires and Golems

Where Phantasia explores the church and encounters a golem.

The first and second revisions were fairly consistent: Phantasia explores the catacombs, comes across a sealed study, and gets attacked by a small creature she identifies as a golem. The second version removed the more mundane “day-in-the-life” elements, however. Those were returned in the current story, while the exploration was expanded to foreshadow later events.

Chapters

Is this Scooby-Doo?

Where Phantasia and Veritas explore a ‘haunted’ mansion.

The current revision added a lot more material relating to Veritas, as the original versions focused almost entirely on Phantasia and Dante.

Chapters

Phantasia and Dante

Where Phantasia tries to understand Dante, who tries to keep her at arms length.

Nope, not much to say here, other than the most recent versions being better written, of course :p

Chapters

Questioning the Masquerade

Where Phantasia tries to work out what’s going on with the illusion messing everyone’s memories around.

And here we have a story that wasn’t even present in the previous incarnations! It was included to help with pacing, for developing secondary characters, and to explore the idea of the masquerade and how it was affecting people.

Chapters

The First Flashback

The story of how Phantasia and Faye first met.

The observant among you might notice the first revision numbers are wrong – that’s because this flashback happened after the golem attack in that version, and was combined with the scenes of Faye first interacting with humans. Overall, however, the basic plot remains the same, with the usual added development in the most recent iteration (including the addition of characters such as Faye’s ‘mother’).

Chapters

The Golem Attack

Tirio sends a golem to test Phantasia, forcing her to reveal her identity in front of her friends.

The basic set-up remains the same throughout, but the execution differs. Again, there’s more development for secondary characters in the most recent version, with additional scenes showing events from the students’ perspective (such as when they’re evacuated to the shelters), and more involvement from the staff.

A major difference is that, in the first and second revisions, it is Faye who attacked the golem, which was defeated by the two young faeries working together. This was altered in the current edition to reflect Faye’s lack of combat ability, and so the two faeries could develop their skills and teamwork during the story. Queen Thetis didn’t feature in the earlier versions.

Chapters

Beneath Torsten

Phantasia and Faye explore ruins buried beneath their church.

Just look at the chapter lists. You don’t need me to tell you just how much this part of the story was developed in the latest version :p

Rather than tell you what was added, I’ll just summarise what happened in the old version: Phantasia and Faye decide to track down the source of the wraiths (leansidhe), leading them deep underground, where they discover Veritas had the same idea, as did Ceres and Korrigan, while Ms Anderson is there trying to stop the summoning of a demon. The faeries help disrupt the magic circle, and the cultists sacrifice themselves to their master – the resulting monstrosity is killed by the two faeries as the humans escape.

Yeah, no Alexis/Ms Chiltern, no “gauntlet of Veritas”, no golems or magic bullets or decapitations. No Lyra, Kaori and Joel, either. And a lot less disturbing.

Chapters

The Egotist and his car

Where Chris gets an upgrade for the Lady Diablo, while a mysterious new teacher arrives…

The second whole-new-story, this time inserted to give Chris some development before the story calls on him to take a step onto centre stage. And that whole Adonis thing? See the next part for that pandora’s box…

Chapters

Where We Are Now…

A mysterious figure appears, but has a hidden agenda…

Once again, you can see the difference…OR CAN YOU? You see…this whole Adonis thing…was one chapter (Rio 1, the Serpent and the Heart I). Rather than Awyr, the perpetrator was Tirio, who posed as a student rather than a teacher. Veritas tried to unmask him, as did Phantasia and Faye, but then… well, to say any more would be to ruin the upcoming story :p

The events of Rio II-IV / The Serpent and the Heart II-IV will happen over the course of chapters 74 to… well… we’ll just have to wait and see!

Chapters