Anymore info on the upcoming book?

The book is at the moment little more than a fixture in Brad's brain (publically, anyway). I can only assume that it'll be good.... and hopefully "it" will really turn out to be "they"..........

Yeah a series explaining some of the lore and units would be pretty nice.

I am all for a book with backstory!  I am the guy who reads the text in every quest...annoying for the people I play with in MMO's who just want to run off and do their thing

Elemental will have a lot of text in it.  So much that I'm not certain we'll be releasing non-English versions of it except for Russian (our partner Snowball is awesome at this stuff).

As for the book...

Wrote a chapter today that involved a golem battling this umberdroth.  

The book isn't based on the game but rather the game is based on the books (originally just a series of outlines over the years).

You can pre-order the book on Amazon.

Aren't French and German languages compulsory in France and Germany? Or just an Urban Legend fueled by companies making translations for those languages all the time but not others? Given time (and opportunity) mods for other languages are going to appear. I fear not good sales from my country due to release delays (if ever) and language though. Galc Civ II was released here after Dark Avatar was released so go figure... People really interested will have to do the usual import thing (or Impulse). Which is not necessarily bad due to pricing here.

Any chance of someday that book reaching other countries so I can avoid the hassle of buying overseas?

Great to hear Frogboy. I think books really help to get into the game. Well for me it does. I have read few of the Warhammer 40k books and really liked it. Lots of neat Lore in those books.

Is this it?:

http://www.amazon.com/Elemental-Destinys-Embers-Brad-Wardell/dp/0345517865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263685713&sr=1-1

I had to do some digging in order to find it. Is it for sure coming out August 3rd?

Can't speak for France but there are no language restrictions in Germany. Only nazi-symbols and excessive depiction of violence is problematic here (OK, sex maybe too but that has never been a problem with a game from the US).

I've always wondered about this..... in Germany, are games like Hellboy that use Nazis as villains permitted?

I know that anti-Fascist stuff is allowed because of an art project I heard about in which a bunch of garden gnomes were posed doing the heil-hitler and it didn't get taken down because the artist claimed it was anti-nazi..........

Thats definitely it, look at the author.

As for the release date, IDK.

There could be two Brad Wardells I just want confirmation that it is the book, because right now there is no information about it on Amazon, just the title, author, and release date.

I remember when I used to play Magic the Gathering and I had read the book ARENA based on that game.

That book was simple but yet so much entertaining. I must of read it 300 times LOL

I love the books on games keep them coming.

That's interesting to know that and i could buy that.

Does it mean that Elemental will be more focused on lore than previous Stardock games?

I wasn't a great fan of how lore was handled in GC2 with amateurish tech descriptions and races stories which were really poor. It felt like you devs didn't take too much seriously the fact that story and lore could have a big impact on how the game can be enjoyable.

Are we going to see a different approach for elemental?

They could sell the book over Impulse. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. That would save people on shipping and in your case importing.

I can't wait to see how they resolve the conflict between an unaging ruler and a hereditory, monarchial system of government. To me they seem paradoxical. If you arent' expecting to die for the next 500 years, certainly you can wait to have children right? The age gap alone would make governance impossible.

"Hey Billy, we're going to great great great great grandfathers house for dinner tonight."

"Awe, I hate going to great great great great gandfathers house! It's sooo boring there and it smells like 700 year old fruit cake."

I smiled at this.

hehe..... but really, unaging rulers make for great monarchs........ or dictators for that matter...

One thing I feel compelled to mention here is that both Galactic Civilizations and Elemental are based foremost on unpublished manuscripts.

The main difference here is that Elemental's is going to actually get published.

Whos veiwpoint willl it be from? Will it come from the rulers of the empire either being Fallen or Human? Or will it come from an omniscient person who knows everything about everyone? Or even will it just be a narration by an omniscient outsider who has nothing really to do with the story?

Personally I would like to see from veiwpoint from one of the men in army. Maybe  a sargent or a captian or even a lowly foot soldier who is just good enough to stay alive but not to lead. I find books that use mostly ordinary people who for some reason or another (usually hardwork or luck) become impotant to the story. The whole teenager who family dies mysteriously but you later on find out they were trying to kill him because he is an incarnate god or some such is just well not very engaging anymore.

Also nice to read abouyt a character who isn't good nor bad but just human. Not out for himself say but not out for anyone else. If you understand what I mean. Bleeding heart paladins are annoying on there own and even with a group of people. Same for evil chars. The whole idea a char is evil to be evil is just insulting. Much better to have a char who is trying to do good but makes choices that become evil or he is protecting his people.

Way off track now. Just my two cents.

POV is from particular characters in the story.  All mere mortals, non-rulers.

Rumor has it that the LE of Elemental will have an extended manual that will be 200 pages... so is alot of that exerpts from the novel? Or is the entire novel included?

If it's not I'll get the novel as soon as it comes out :3

I think the story telling from a mortals point of veiw is alot more in touch with what we experience. Even though we don't live in a fantasy world there is still alot of stuff we can't control in or day to day lives.

Pre-orderd the book, from just the small bits of info released I would like to have it in my hands now...but I can wait I guess.

Another thing that will be interesting, is exactly how these sovereigns breed. I would guess that the women, or female whatevers, have much shorter lifespans, and their windows of fertility would be even shorter still. It would often be the case that the old man would need a new young wife, or perhaps a harem of concubines. This whole thing could get pretty hedonistic, expecially if there is a strategic advantage of having many children. It might even take some skill to avoid a mature rating unless you leave a great many details unexplained. 

A male Sovereign could spam many children. Quite more faster than a female one (without magic methods used).