Afterword

This is it.

The first volume in a series of many more. The starting point of the journey

featuring the loveable Cosmic Horror. The beginning of a story of which the

end is written in the stars.

I would like to take my time in the afterword to explain a thing you dear

readers might feel confused about in this volume: The names of Chaos and

Runa/Luna.

As you may know, "Crawling Chaos" is the title of Nyarlathotep, an Outer

God from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In this story, it's the race of our

protagonist and her mother. So, why would she give Chaos such a name? It

would be like calling your human child Sapiens, after Homo Sapiens.

The simple answer is that I came up with the name Chaos long before I

decided on what her race would be called.

The in-story answer is that Chaos is actually not pronounced the same as the

English "chaos" [kay-os], but the Japanese "kaosu" [kah-os]. It sounds natural

to her either way, so she doesn't comment on it.

And the same is the case with Runa/Luna. In Japanese, "ru" is pronounced

with a soft "r", which sounds almost like an "l". To Chaos, who knows

fantasy fiction and read the name Luna a lot in those, the two are

interchangeable. Of course, she knows that Runa uses the rolled "r", but at

this point, she has turned it into a nickname for the half-elf.

Now, I would like to extend my heartfelt acknowledgments to all the people

who helped me make this book a reality:

Firstly, the artists of this volume's wonderful covers:

The ebook cover was done by the magnificent Whisper, who has shown an

immense progress in skill and style over the course of the year that I have

known him. Without your cover art, I would be missing my target audience

by a mile.

The paperback cover, which is an oil painting on canvas, was created by my

longest-time supporter - my very own mother. You have supported my every

decision in life and been the greatest driving force that finally led to this

moment.

Secondly, a huge Thank You to all my Patrons who supported me throughout

my Patreon-career. And I extend my special gratitude to those who remained

with me throughout the rewriting phase, when my online updates became

very sporadic for the sake of finally creating this book:

Lars Henschel, ashadun,

Sager ALSoqair, Sawyer Aubrey, Mark,

Robin Voigt, Demian Buckle, Dante Perez, Cryostorm,

taichi1082, Oracle, Cheshire Fish,

and twelve more.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all my readers! Whether you joined

me on this journey from the very beginning; found it during any one of the

more than one hundred released chapters at the time of this volume's

publishing; or learned about this story through this very book itself, I say to

you: Welcome to the Chaos!

With these words, I close the pages on this volume, and hope to see you again

in the next book!

J.J. Pavlov (Meakashi)