This classic video game inspired Wind Master’s plot
Seems like it’d been years since I first put Wind Master up for a few beta reads. And wow, was it a fun book to write.
I’ve always thought of Wind Wielder and Wind Master as two parts of the same novel, as the latter picks up right where Wind Wielder left off. Yet unlike Wind Wielder, which covers four months; Wind Master spans just two weeks.
One reason is that an old and underrated video game’s plot inspired Wind Master’s, and it involved a race against time. Now of course, these old video games never made much sense from a story or in this case a campaign standpoint, so I loosely based the book on the game. I just needed a believable story to follow.
Dive into Wind Master: Book II in Elementals of Nordica
Five Worlds. One prison break. No second chances.
Sion Zona came back from the dead—literally. But if he thought escaping Tamuria once was hard, now he’s got a bigger problem: His allies are locked away in high-security prisons scattered across different worlds.
The kicker? Global superpowers guard each prison. And all of them want Sion dead before he unlocks his power’s true potential.
Armed with evolving elemental powers and a seriously short fuse, Sion launches a rescue mission that would be suicide—if he wasn’t already supposed to be a corpse. But unless he can master his abilities fast, Valkyrie and the others won’t survive.
If you’re into sword-slinging, wind-hurling rebellion with military grit and dimension-hopping danger, Wind Master brings the heat.
Wind Master’s description provides a few clues…
For one, Sion is traveling across worlds. Tamuria, the global power in Eidolon, has access to the portals enabling such travel, which I also call archways, given their distinct shape. It’s here, they acquired a multitude of dangerous weapons from the Five Worlds. They fortify such weapons with elemental ability on Eidolon and it makes them an unstoppable force that Sion’s having a tough time with.
Following the events of Wind Wielder, however, Nordica’s most important elementals are now captured both in Tamuria’s max security prisons on Eidolon, while others are captured in the other worlds of Catenary, Terrene, Terra, and Rondure.
Sion must take it upon himself to rescue this important crew if Nordica (and the World of Eidolon) stands any chance against Tamuria.
The video game in question is…
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, one of the best video games of all time that doesn’t get enough credit. And if you don’t know the concept, Sarge’s Heroes consists of just toy army men – the typical green and tan soldiers you often find in dollar stores. The events in the beginning of Wind Master were pretty much derived from the video game, but with a few exceptions:
- Sarge’s Heroes has no elemental magic or fantasy of any kind.
- The “weapons” that the Tan Army gets their hands on in the video game are nothing more than basic household items like toys and magnifying glasses, etc.
- In Sarge’s Heroes, Sarge is traveling between just two worlds. Sion has a few more to worry about.
- Sarge often goes through his missions alone except for two of them.
- The Green Army wins the war by destroying the portals. In Wind Master, these archways can’t be destroyed. And even if Sion succeeds, there is no guarantee the Nordicans gain the upper hand.
- Obviously, my main characters are not plastic toy army men, but flesh-and-blood humans.
Overall, Wind Master is very loosely based on the plot of Sarge’s Heroes, and it must be to keep things believable. Obviously, video games can be pretty unbelievable, especially back in the 1990s. And again, Sarge’s Heroes basically inspired the plot, more than anything else – even if it helped spawn quite a few series in the Renegades Epic.
Takes on Wind Master and Elementals of Nordica
On an original concept in which the plot of Sarge’s Heroes was nothing more than inspiration with a few identical settings. For example, early on before his first rescue mission, Sion enters an abandoned town (akin to Level Two in Sarge’s Heroes), and in a later chapter, he must sneak into an enemy base (much like the Riff Mission).
And, as mentioned, while Sion takes things upon himself, he does have more help than he realizes. So you’re really getting two stories in one single book featuring at least four points of view. Mainly you will see the work from Sion’s eyes, and our second and third POV characters (who I’ll keep unnamed to avoid spoilers), plus an occasional fourth.
Now, if you’re interested in Wind Keeper – Book III – I will tell you that it has at least five POV characters. So brace yourself!
For more information on Elementals of Nordica and the Renegades Epic, join the Readers Republic and pick up a few free stories regarding Sion and the others before the events of Book I – Wind Wielder.
