Hi Reader,

Lovely to see you. Please, come in, sit down. On the table, I have a terracotta vase filled with chamomile flowers, sacred to Inanna, and Mesopotamian irises. The land of Gilgamesh has taken over the game table, as you can see.

Because the Kickstarter for Defy the Gods launches on Tuesday!

If you haven't yet signed up to follow the campaign, please do at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/defy-the-gods. Then come back.

This book got a lot more personal than I expected.

I look back to four years ago, at starry-eyed Chris resolving to make such an ambitious game. To three years ago, when my brother's passing moved me to make a game that drinks deep of life. One year ago, when I finally made queer resistance the game's core. And late last year, when, against my business interests, I started billing it as a "queer game."

This book became a beacon for my trans journey. It rocked my whole sense of who I am.

Now, thanks partly to this game, I'm changing my name. A little. I go by Chrys now. Among friends.

Why do trans people always go for Y names?

It's short for Chrysoprase, an apple-green stone straight out of a Lord Dunsany story. I love Dunsany's sense of abundance and uncharted possibility—his wild invention. I flooded Defy the Gods with that abundance.

In 1916, in the middle of the Great War, Dunsany publishes The Last Book of Wonder. His preface acknowledges how dark the world seems. But he's still in love with wonder.

In 2025, the world seems dark again. In an act of resistance or maybe just flight, I'm publishing a game full of wonder. Wonder, passion, glory, doom. A loom to weave infinite characters who drink deep of life.

That's the earthbound dream, anyway. To make it take flight, I need a push!

So, forward this email. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.

It all starts on Tuesday. See you then!

Your friend,
Chrys

P.S. That link to send your enemies to is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/defy-the-gods.