Sometimes that can be interesting, but mostly it just means a ton of half-finished projects. I need to find some NaNo equivalent for revisions, that'd be good.

He's semi-aware (one of his companions is a bard who's deliberately planting seeds and monitoring his reputation through ballads and the like) but doesn't realize just how big an impact he's had until he gets into real trouble and there are near-riots.

... by 'unpublishable', I mean 'no publisher in their right mind would pick it up'. It falls so far outside any established genre it can't even see them, and for most of its length, it's basically pure world-building. People have compared it to The Silmarillion - which was equally unpublishable until The Lord of the Rings had made people eager for any and all Tolkien works. (And then it was unpublishable because Tolkien was incapable of calling it finished, but that's another story)

As an example of the more world-buildy parts, this comes from a sequence of nine Answers of Cariad:

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XXVII. The Fifth Answer of Cariad

One who once worshipped a false goddess of fire asked of Cariad, “What are the greatest deeds of Tân, of whom you have told us?” And Cariad thought on this, and pondered long. And then in the dark of the night she knelt before the altar and called upon Ennyn, and sought of her knowledge.

And when the next evening came came Cariad met with her followers, and explained the truth of things; and this is what she told them:

The first great deed of Tân was that she was born; for against each of us coming to be stand a multitude of possibilities. Each human is unique upon the world, and the slightest change in the course of the world would have rendered each of us as dust on the wind.

The second great deed of Tân was that she grew to an adult; for in the days before the birth of the entwined three did many of the children of humanity die in their infancy, and looked not upon the world with their waking minds.

The third great deed of Tân was that she became skilled in the crafts of humanity; for in that time but few of those who dwell in the House of Bod had come to be, and of those who bless humankind with skills, only Cynhyrch yet stood upon the earth. Nevertheless did Tân become wise in the ways of stone-shaping, and of hunting, and of gathering food from the trees and shrubs around.

The fourth great deed of Tân was that she stood when others fled, and spoke with Ennyn of the flames, and was given by her the fire which humanity has treasured ever since. Yet she spoke not the name of Ennyn thereafter, and claimed ever that she had found fire of her own accord; and this is accounted the fifth great deed of Tân. For Ennyn at that time was bitter and cruel, and sought only to harm humanity; and only now that her punishment is complete, and she rejoices in the love of Cynhyrch, and works for the good of humanity, is her name to be spoken.

Now the sixth great deed of Tân was that, returning with fire to her tribe, she sought to understand it. For the minds of humanity are meant to study and to learn, yet many forsake those paths and choose only to accept what they are given. And by her understanding did Tân preserve her tribe: for the place where they dwelt was besieged by fire from lightning, and the people fled in terror. Yet Tân, knowing that fire even as beast requires air to breath, smothered the flames; and knowing that fire fears water, she cast the river into its path; and knowing that fire feeds on wood, she drew back the litter of the forest floor. And thus was the advance of the fire stayed, and the tribe of Tân preserved; and this is accounted the seventh great deed of Tân.

The eighth great deed of Tân was that she took of the fire and made her tribe great. For even as wildfire may destroy the forest and set humanity to flight, so Tân saw that fire in her hand would bring terror to her enemies. And so were the great beasts which hunted the tribe of Tân driven forth; and so also were those humans who were not humans, who sought to destroy the tribe of Tân; and the humans of Tân’s tribe lived in peace.

The ninth great deed of Tân was that she brought the fire to the realms of peace; for Cynhyrch whispered to her by the light of the fire, and Tân was taught to cook her meat, and render it better for humans to eat. And at the time she knew not who had guided her; but those who dwell in the House of Bod knew, and speak of it still.

And the tenth and final great deed of Tân was that, in the fulness of time, having lived by the accounting of her people a long life, she died; and all the fragments of her soul were scattered among humanity, and humans were enriched thereby; and so did humanity prosper, and become great, even the greatest of all the life on the Earth.

Commentary by Professor Trottier

As with the Fourth Answer, Cariad reveals more than was outlined in Tân’s chapter of The Words of the Voice. Professor Miller notes that Tân’s use of fire is hinted at in said chapter, when Cynhyrch gives the gift of cooking to counter the destructive power given by Ennyn; this, however, is the only place it is explicitly described.

Doctor Preuss claims that the great deeds of Tân are ‘illogical, wildly separated in time, and on occasion flatly impossible’. She has not, however, put forward any proof of her claims, and as such, can safely be ignored.

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It's a complex mess of names (seriously, I had to keep a running appendix to help me track them) which often wanders off onto wild tangents, and just... yeah, that.

hS