Calen Bender Mornden
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mandokarla.bsky.social
Calen Bender Mornden
@mandokarla.bsky.social
640 followers 1.8K following 220 posts
Demi/Ace Dragon-obsessed Fantasy Writer and TTRPG enjoyer. He/him.
Medium Profile: https://medium.com/@mandokarla
Profile banner commissioned from: deviantart.com/ridiy
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mandokarla.bsky.social
I've been rereading the series for the first time in years, and I cannot overstate how fucking good this specific book is. The character work bleeds on the page, I love it. #Temeraire #Dragons #Fantasy #Book
November 20, 2025 at 1:28 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Finally Finished Final Fantasy XVI. I'm emotional about it. I love this game. Despite its flaws, it's purpose-built to remind us that we can affect change in the world. Clive is the GOAT. #FinalFantasy #FF16 #FFXVI
A screenshot of Clive from Final Fantasy 16, surrounded by flames and magic while his dark hair frames his face. He's saying, "These...these are our terms."
November 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Odin dark is my BOY in this run of Conquest. I decided to pick the game back up after years away for fun, and everyone that sleeps on this guy is missing out. He doesn't take much investment to do his job, and he improved the entire run for being used. #FireEmblem #Fates #Conquest
October 28, 2025 at 7:37 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Whenever I finish a book series, I mourn. The worlds are real, in their way, and leaving them behind with a closed cover feels like saying a last goodbye to a dear friend, trite as the comparison is.

Some series are harder to end than others for me. This is one of them. Goddess bless Melanie Rawn
The front cover art of the book "Skybowl," by Melanie Rawn. It depicts a man in sunlit golden armor, right hand shrouded by colored Fire, bearing a longsword. Behind him stands a gold and russet colored dragon, protectively crouching over his Prince. Behind both, across a clear and beautiful blue lake in a mountain crater, is Skybowl Keep, a small desert fortress of the mountains.
October 8, 2025 at 7:04 PM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Sometimes the only way to remember and reconnect with an old love and story is to feel the grief of it anew.

Tears, in joy or sorrow, are as much a sign of a story told true than any number of objective measures espoused by learned men and women.

I've missed these books dearly. Goddess blessing.
The cover of "Stronghold" by Melanie Rawn. It depicts a castle cast in golden light by the fire of a conjured dragon breathing flames in defiance of invaders.
September 24, 2025 at 5:04 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
I'm so glad my wife got me into this show. What a beautiful story, even as ridiculous as it can be
Luffy from One Piece in Gear 5, laughing in the sky as floating paper lanterns rise around and behind him. A celebration of wishes granted.
March 5, 2025 at 4:58 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Say what you will about the side quests in Final Fantasy XVI, they're worth it for moments like this.

Alt text included (especially when it lets me cheat out the character limit). #FinalFantasy #FFXVI #FF16
A screenshot from Final Fantasy 16 depicting the backyard of the hideaway, a recessed grotto built from the side of an ancient ruin of pale white stone filled with flowers, vines, and early struggling attempts at farming in a blight-stricken environment. Flowers of gold and red and green fill boxes on the ground, while a large barrel water purifier stands flanked by hanging vines and a small, sturdy apple tree in the background. Clive, the game's protagonist, stands beside the hideaway's lead botanist in the foreground, looking back on all they've accomplished. It is a good moment, a happy moment, hard-won in a world that's collapsing around them. A reminder of what we live for.
February 19, 2025 at 7:18 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Another snip from my #WIP video essay script talking about the dialogue between games and their players / the intention of a game in its playing and how it exerts that intention over the player. I hope this makes sense; we'll see how it feels once it's done and I can edit it. #SlayThePrincess
A screenshot of a document. It reads: "Slay The Princess opens by subverting common visual novel conventions, while still promising others. Every ending is valid and every choice matters, but the same statement that encourages players to make independent decisions also encourages them to obsessively explore every permutation, every choice, every story path, and every perspective—a behavioral pattern endemic to the medium, and thus a pattern the game weaponizes to its own fulfillment. In the dialogue between player and game, the game asserts its will over the player not through dominance, as in Tyranny, but in sweet promises and textual sleight-of-hand."
November 14, 2024 at 9:31 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Wrote 1.3k words on this video script, I'm liking how it's coming together thus far. Have a #WIP snippet of what I have so far, which is part of my completed section discussing the game Tyranny. Talking about some things I've noticed about games that play with the game/player relationship.
screenshot from a text document. It reads: "By the time you have full control of your character, as the first arc of the game is introduced and the mountain pass is sealed behind you, you are wholly trapped in multiple ways. You are personally responsible for the suffering of untold thousands of people, and you made every one of those decisions. You have exercised power and judgement in Kyros’ name, and that has earned you the privilege of being trapped wrangling two uniquely loathsome factions of supposed “allies”—all while an Edict of Execution hangs over everyone in the valley like a Sword of Damocles. You are complicit. You have wielded power over others. If you are to survive, you must do so again. Only then, when you are trapped physically, compromised morally, and seemingly doomed narratively, does Tyranny unlock its half of the handcuffs and let the player’s intentions take priority. Only after the game has forced the player to engage with its thesis statement does the game allow the player to explore it. Because Tyranny is a game about being powerful, and being evil, and to best experience what the art has to offer, you have to be both."
November 8, 2024 at 9:43 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
I yearn for a new fantasy video game to look at Tyranny's magic system as a point of inspiration. Tyranny absolutely nailed it: multiple levels of progression through levels and discovery, integration with the game's lore, and satisfying effects with lots of variability and customization. Beautiful!
A screenshot of the user interface for spell creation in the video game Tyranny, released in 2016. A worn frame of gold or brass contains the UI, which depicts the four party members and their known spells on the right side, and the core sigils, accents, and expressions used in spell crafting on the left. The spell being highlighted in the image is the spell Acid Rain, an area-of-effect debuff spell that uses the game's Entropy magic skill to cast.
November 3, 2024 at 12:07 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Moments like these remind me why I love the fantasy genre so much--movies, books, video games, doesn't matter. Awe, potential, majesty, wonder, mystery, and magic. It's lovely. #FFXVI #FinalFantasy
A screenshot from Final Fantasy 16, where Clive looks up at Drake's Breath. Drake's Breath is a massive red magical crystal erupting from the mouth of a volcano. The mouth of the volcano spirals like a petrified stone whirlpool around the equally petrified, but resplendent crystal at its center.
October 24, 2024 at 8:51 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
#1 Magician (Author's Preferred Edition) by Raymond E. Feist.
My name actually comes from this book, and it's a fantasy story that I have a lot of fond memories of. I re-read it earlier this year with my Fiancé, and it was lovely to revisit. Milamber in the colosseum is a peak scene.
the cover of the book Magician by author Raymond E. Feist. Two men, stand on a foggy shore, looking toward the sun off-screen. One is an old wizard with a long white beard wearing ornate red robes, holding a staff. The other is a younger man holding a map, wearing what appears to be a squire's tabard with a sword holstered at his side.
October 24, 2024 at 12:36 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
This sounds fun, why not?
October 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM
mandokarla.bsky.social
#WIP snippet from today's bit of writing work on the fantasy novel. Part of a conversation between master and apprentice in the first chapter of Act 2, approaching some things introduced at the end of Act 1.
Fangwyn stroked his beard. “For an apprentice, or a mage early in his compositions, the risk is vanishingly small, it’s true. But so are the potential damages. If you were to cast a spell in your dreaming, it would most likely be our favorite little light—the spell that is habitual to you, second nature, is one that is limited in scope and power. But if I were to do it, and I were hounded by a particularly vivid nightmare . . . ” he trailed off, eyes staring blankly down at the table. Hiraeth began to reach across, but the movement was enough to break the reverie. Fangwyn cleared his throat. “There could be real damage done,” he finished.
October 9, 2024 at 8:36 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,178,921!

I wasn't the earliest adopter, and I don't utilize the platform as much as I likely should, but hey, it's cool.
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,178,921, Mandokarla ‪@mandokarla.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 22, 2023"
September 25, 2024 at 7:26 PM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Sharing a snippet from my #WIP fantasy novel. Its about 35-40% done at just over 50k words so far, and I'm feeling good about it.
The catharsis enervated him almost entirely, and he slid down to sit on one of the ancient stone steps. The cragwyrm flicked its tongue at him while he quivered on the edge of weeping. The small, indigo creature relaxed its spines and slowly, without digging its claws in too deeply, scaled the debris and Hiraeth’s trouser leg alike to settle into a gentle and curled, if prickly, ball in his lap. When the mage blinked away the tears, he looked into a pair slitted, searching, golden eyes. “We can go home,” Hiraeth whispered, feeling his tears fall into the lines of his smile. “You saved us, little one. We can go home.” He curled around the small life in his lap and held it as tightly as he dared. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” After a moment, those golden eyes slowly closed as the cragwyrm nuzzled its head into Hiraeth’s stomach. Together the two souls breathed, no matter how shakily at first, and rejoiced in their own freedom. There was still some travel between them and home, but it
September 16, 2024 at 7:31 AM
mandokarla.bsky.social
Unexpectedly hard turn in product strategy from Auntie Anne's in my inbox today. It's a lot to take in.
An email from Auntie Anne's pretzels with the headline "Get Knotty this Valentine's"
February 14, 2024 at 7:27 PM
mandokarla.bsky.social
I attempted to make Gali Nuva in HeroForge, and I think it turned out alright
a hero forge miniature representing gali nuva from bionicle. Blue tones with silver armor, shoulder pads, and twin steel battleaxes.
October 31, 2023 at 9:04 PM