Update - 15/06/2026

Hello, and welcome to another update! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was fine, went out for a couple of hours to see Penny (the artist that illustrated Choir of Flesh and that is currently working on the Book of Horrors for Ker Nethalas), since he was presenting his latest zine, All your heroes are dead. It's always fun chatting with him about music, RPGs, and art, so I had a great time! Got to meet quite a few Blackoath fans, too, which was really unexpected!

In other news, it looks like my wife and I are going to slowly each go our separate ways. This has been brewing for a long time (as these things normally do) but we've reached a point where the only reason we're staying together is money. I can't say I'm swimming in money, but at least I have the apartment, and that alone, not having to pay a mortgage or rent, is a huge boon, as you can imagine. My wife was a war refugee as a child and her family lost everything, so she doesn't own anything at all. And even though she has slowly but surely drifted apart from me, she has stayed because she was afraid to end up on the street, basically. She's in a foreign country, too, so that doesn't help her situation. Once she realized that no matter what happens between us I'll still look out for her, we managed to get past all that and realize that we want completely different things from life. And yes, there are two sides to every story and all that, but what I can say (something she admits herself) is that it isn't me who has changed interests, goals, or tastes, it's actually her, to the point where she is a completely different person, one that, to be blunt, I wouldn't have approached for a relationship, ever. I'm a really simple (boring) guy: all I want is to hang out with friends, play some games, and enjoy some good music. She wants completely different things so for the past few years doing anything together was becoming harder and harder.

I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but the result is that I'm renting an apartment, and she will be staying in the old one. This will be a slow transition, mostly because she really needs my help (especially with her mother living with us; she is sick and needs constant attention), but one that I've already set into motion. To be honest, it all lined up very nicely for this to happen... As some of you know, we were looking to get a mortgage to buy a bigger place but didn't get it (kind of glad it didn't, considering what's going on now...). At the same time, they built a new block right beside mine with apartments meant to be rented, exclusively. So I looked into it out of curiosity, saw that the prices were actually great (which means absolute shit, but that's how things are right now in Madrid), and applied. I got approved and before I knew it, I had reserved the place. This happened super quick, like within the last two weeks. I'm actually signing the contract today, so yeah, super quick. But I had to act quick because, like I said, the apartments are super nice and "affordable" (1000€ monthly rent) and there was only one left. Of course, this is going to really kill my finances and I'm honestly scared of not being able to pay rent, but what else can I do? The situation was getting critical and it was starting to affect my work, and that is unacceptable.

So if I don't get kicked out in three months due to not being able to pay the rent, I'm hoping this will be a positive change. Obviously it's all drama and super tense right now, as you can imagine, and it's all being very emotionally draining, but with more space I'll be able to play games again (I'm going to cry), have a small corner dedicated to my music recording, record videos in peace, and even have friends over for dinner, something I haven't been able to do in years... I feel like I'm getting my life back, even if it costs me a relationship and more money than I can afford monthly.

This means that I'm going to have to cut expenses as much as I can, as you can expect. This will of course not affect Blackoath at all, I'm not going to start cutting corners, so don't worry! What I might do, especially if the whole GamesQuest thing works well, is organize Kickstarter campaigns much more often. This year truly turned out to be one of transition, both in the personal and the professional sides of my life. Let's hope next year things are much more established, with a more solid foundation!

Sorry for the long, boring post, but I like to keep you guys posted of things like this because as you can imagine they do affect my output, and I feel like I haven't really been that productive lately. As I settle in the new place, I'll need a bit of time before I get used to the new routine. This will be a slow transition, though, so I will slowly start moving things over there (probably not everything), buying some furniture, and all those things. The great thing is that it's literally 20 meters away from where I live now so I can slowly move it all myself!

So this week I'll keep working on all the Machine Gods stuff I have pending to do, as well as the Book of Horrors for Ker Nethalas. I will share a few pages with you guys soon!

Have a great week!