The following is intended to answer some of the more common and/or burning
questions about Wulf the Freelance and his advantures. If you have any further
questions, or would like to see more questions on this FAQ, please feel free
to write.
Who the hell
is this Wulf guy, anyway?
Wulf is the main character in a series of erotic swords-and-sorcery adventures
set in the world of Thystra. Wulf is a self-described ne'er-do-well who is nonetheless
possessed of an innate sense of fair play, and who usually ends up doing the right
thing, much to his own chagrin. Though he constantly complains of how badly the
gods treat him, he seems to keep falling into bed with an astonishing variety
of exotic women. Physically, he's of medium height, in good physical shape, with
brown hair and dark eyes, and seemingly permanent beard-stubble. He's handsome
in a roguish, somewhat boyish way that many women find refreshing, though his
personality ranges from cynical resignation to depressive self-pity. Wulf is a
decent street-fighter, a passible sword-fighter, a poor magician, and a competent
thief. He likes to think that between his various skills, he retains enough to
survive.
Wulf began his career as a sneak-thief on the streets of Godshome, capital
of the White Empire, and after a brief stint in the Imperial Magic Academy
(in which he severely damaged large portions of the place), set out as
a career Freelance. Grabbing what he could when he could, he eventually
enlisted in the Imperial army, participated in a disastrous campaign against
the Veldt Lands, served as slave to the ravenous Countess Xylara of Xesh,
aided the elves against the invading orcs, met the sorceress Livia and
her lover the demoness Narisha, helped defeat the elvish usurper known
as the Stormking, and fought against the evil machinations of the dark
elf Thae'lynn N'Quy. Along the way, he's also managed to have sex in nearly
all its most exotic and protracted forms.
And while we're at it, who the hell are you?
My name is Anthony Pryor, and I've been active in a number of careers over
the years (though nothing as varied or interesting as Wulf, I'm afraid). My
primary notoriety comes from my activities as a writer in the roleplaying game
industry, with products from FASA (Battletech), Bard Games (Talislanta), TSR
(AD&D), WotC (Compleat Alchemist) and White Wolf Games/Sword and Sorcery
Studios (the Scarred Lands setting, Ravenloft and the Everquest roleplaying
game) under my belt. I also had the pleasure of helping to create one of the
worst games ever, which fortunately for me and the gaming public quietly disappeared
beneath the waves a few years ago (write me for more details there, if you like).
For many years I was a typesetter/prepress operator, which gave me my love of
the printed word and got me interested in the computer industry. For several
more years I served time as a technical support operator, telling people that,
yes, you had to dial up the Internet to get e-mail, that when the software says
"8 Megs of RAM required" it doesn't mean "Okay, this will work with 2 Megs"
and that the funny little thing on the front of the computer is not a "drink
holder" (I never got that call, but met people who claimed they did). Since
then I've served as writer for egghead.com (another victim of the great dot-com
meltdown) and am presently underemployed as a tech support specialist for my
local school district.
Why did you decide to start writing the Wulf stories?
Ever checked out the quality of the stories that are published in alt.sex.stories?
When you can wade through the appalling mass of Spam ("Hi! I'm a hot college
girl who wants to show it ALL to you... Just go to www.totalloser.com and
see!"), you'll find some decent stories. You'll also find reams and reams
of crap, including kiddie porn, snuff stories, and what I like to call
"My Wife the Slut" pieces, which feature some thick-skulled moron writing
about how his bowling club banged his wife one night after watching the
Bears game. Anyway, most of this is either a) bad, b) offensive, c) downright
sick, or all three. I decided to start posting some stuff that put a somewhat
more positive spin on sex, and featured the kind of fantasy world we all
grew up with. I think that the possibilities of smut in the worlds of Conan,
Fafhrd and the Mouser, Elric and friends have been neglected too long,
and it's time we did something about it.
What were your inspirations for the Wulf stories?
Wulf isn't the most original creation in the universe, and he arrives here
with a long pedigree of heroes who have come before him. Primary among
my inspirations are the works of Fritz
Leiber (author of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series), Jack
Vance (author of the Dying Earth series, among other things), Stephen
Brust (The Vlad Taltos and Phoenix Guards series), Michael
Moorcock (creator of Elric of Melnibone, Jerry Cornelius, Dorian Hawkmoon,
and other immortal heroes), and of course Robert
E. Howard, the man who gave us Conan the Barbarian. On-line, the work
of Elf Sternberg has
gained considerable notoriety as one of the first and best-known ongoing
series of erotic Internet fiction, and both his work and his method of
getting his writing to the masses have both added inspiration to the Wulf
series. Other, equally significant inspirations come from the world of
art and comics, especially Bill Willingham's "Ironwood" (hands down the
best limited-series erotic comic ever published in my humble opinion, even
though the ending sucked donkeys; unfortunately I can find no WWW information
on either), Phil Foglio's "Xxxenophile"
(hands down the best ongoing erotic comic ever published), and the work
of such luminaries as Michael Kaluta, Olivia DeBernardis (can't find links
for those guys, either), Frank
Frazetta, Rodney
Matthews, Roger Dean, Chris
Acheillos, and others.
Is any of the sex stuff drawn from real life?
Yeah, some of it (I'll never tell which, though). Most is just taken from
my imagination, or (here's a good one) is wish-fulfillment or putting a
happy ending on a sexual experience which didn't turn out quite so well
:) Ah, the therapeutic value of literature...
When is the next story coming out?
I get this a lot. Wulf is written to no particular schedule, and I have
to fit him in around the "real" world. He competes with family, job, my
various attempts at "real" writing, and many other things, and I can work
on the stories only when I have the time to spare. When I was trying to
stay home and freelance for a living, it was easier to get Wulf out on
a regular schedule, but lately it hasn't been so easy. The answer to the
above question is invariably, "When it's done, and not a moment sooner."
:)
Are you going to publish Wulf professionally?
Not really. Wulf will remain free and on-line for as long as I write him.
It has crossed my mind to sell hard copy editions of the stories, and sell
them for cost, but I've yet to find a suitable publishing venue. I've had
a couple of folks offer to print up the stories, but to date this has never
panned out. Please let me know if you'd be interested in purchasing such
publications, and what you think would be a reasonable price to charge
should the opportunity arise.
What the f*ck does "marawuti" mean?
Okay, I almost got decapitated for explaining this for the umpteenth time on
chat (everyone else knew it by heart), so I'll give it to you here, and send
folks who ask to this page for an explanation. Marawuti means "sea eagle" in
the language of the Australian Gagadju Aboriginals. The sea eagle is a creature
of considerable spiritual power, since it flies high, sees far, looks really
cool, etc. I wrote a novel a couple of years back in which the two main characters
had aboriginal names Marawuti and Goloban. Originally, I took the identity of
Goloban, which is the flying fox or giant fruit bat, which the Gagadju believe
is a messenger who can travel between the Dreamtime and the waking world. Evil
sorcerers are thought to be able to turn themselves into Goloban, and are often
called "Goloban-men." However, I ended up signing up for a few services under
the name Marawuti, which I thought was more appropriate to my (now) ex-wife
Clio, and in the end the name stuck. Though at heart I'm still a bat, I guess
my handle now means "eagle." Now you can probably understand why people get
annoyed when I launch into an explanation of where my handle comes from :)
and finally...
Where the
hell have you been for three years?
Where does anyone go,
really? I've had a lot to do and a lot to think about; mostly I was engaged
in the business of earning a living at the school district while trying to hold
down work as a line developer for White Wolf Games. It was, on the whole, a
success, but it meant that Wulf fell by the wayside. Well, I'm taking a break
from developing for a while, and I think it's about time to bring Wulf out of
retirement. More on that later.
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