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The following are several writing samples from my game projects. Editing, fiction, and technical writing samples are available upon request. Each sample below is copyrighted by someone, and is included here for review purposes only.

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Samples

Sample #1: Excerpted from the Player's Guide to Eberron, which is © by Wizards of the Coast. It is included here for review purposes only.

Ancient Ruin
The blasted land of the Demon Wastes is the last bastion of the evil powers that ruled Khorvaire during the Age of Demons, and the most dangerous place on the continent. Nevertheless, adventurers journey here for the ruins scattered across the desolate landscape, some so old that only their foundations remain. Though the barren land contains hidden artifacts and forgotten magic, few adventurers return with these treasures, for the dangers of the Wastes are legion. Fiends still hold sway here — rakshasas and lesser beings whose reach is long and subtle. Night hags control small patches of land and remnants of civilization. Humanoid tribes serve the whims of their demonic masters.

When the dragons and their couatl allies defeated the fiends at the end of the Age of Demons, they imprisoned the godlike leaders of the rakshasas deep beneath the surface of the world. The fiendish followers of those rakshasa rajahs fled to the land that had been their empire’s capital — Fah’lrrg in the Infernal language, called the Demon Wastes on modern maps. Many of the rajahs lie beneath the Wastes, while some remain trapped elsewhere in Khorvaire and the continents beyond. Here more than anywhere, however, they left their stamp on the surface world. Their presence (as well as the heavy concentration of their followers) taints the land and the living things upon it. The ground is cracked and dry, the life leached away. Beyond the twisted network of canyons called the Labyrinth, the Demon Wastes present a blasted plain of blackened sand and volcanic glass.

The imprisoned fiends are openly worshiped here. The Carrion Tribes, a handful of barbarian human clans descended from a wave of Sarlonan refugees trapped in this land more than fifteen centuries ago, pay homage to the rakshasa lords trapped beneath the Demon Wastes. Led by half-fiends and possessed warriors, each of these clans gives its allegiance to a different rajah, and the nature of that patron influences everything from customs and traditions to iconography and the clan’s magical abilities. The Plaguebearers clan reveres a fiend-lord of filth and pestilence, while the Deathbringers worship a lord of death and the undead. The Enshrouded worship a fiend of darkness, and the Carrion Hounds revere rot and eat carrion like the vultures they hold sacred. Perhaps most unusually, the Moon Reavers clan worships the night hags of the Wastes rather than the entombed lords of the rakshasas.

The Carrion Tribes are diverse in their beliefs and practices, but they maintain a common reverence for the barbarian ideal and the state of rage. They believe that a raging barbarian is briefly possessed by a fiendish spirit that empowers his body and hardens his mind. For this reason, barbarians hold almost all positions of authority in the Carrion Tribes, although the Moon Reavers also exalt the art of the rogue — stealthy guerrilla tactics, assassination, and shadowy terror.

Though most barbarians in the Demon Wastes serve the fiends eagerly, a few escape, are abandoned, or rebel. These individuals might fall in with the Ghaash’kala (the ghost-guardians who prevent the evil in the Wastes from spreading), or they might join one of the few communities that manage to survive in the Wastes. Some become adventurers, and if they are sakah (see page 35), they use their gifts to further their own ends.

The Lords of Dust (see page 147) are perhaps the most important power group in the Demon Wastes. Devoted servants of the imprisoned fiends, the Lords are distinguished from the Carrion Tribes by being fiends themselves. While some among the Lords of Dust seek to channel the imprisoned rajahs’ power to enhance their own, most strive to break the bonds of the fiend-lords and usher in a new Age of Demons.

The Sakah
Strange births are common within the barbarian tribes; newborns may exhibit the sign of one of the rajahs. Such a sign might be subtle, but could include horns, sharp teeth or claws, red eyes, rough gray skin, bulging knuckles, bony spikes, leathery wings, or some other sign of the rajahs’ dark influence. Some individuals display these fiendish features at birth, while others develop them as they mature physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Carrion Tribes believe that these individuals are blessed and call them sakah (“touched ones”). They often rise to become influential members of their tribes.

Sakah may also have subtle powers that manifest as they age, such as a captivating gaze, a talent for sorcery, or a preternaturally charming voice. These abilities and the reputation of all sakah let them rise in rank within the Carrion Tribes, grant them the strength to survive on their own, or allow them to flee the Wastes.