The Culture: Castalia Publishes The Most Popular Three Kingdoms Version In English

Castalia House continues to innovate.

In this case with machine-aided translation work, making it far easier and thus cheaper to translate non-Anglophone literature into English (and vice-versa).

In the last week, one of the biggest such projects hit the stands: fff

THE EPIC RETELLING OF A CHINESE CLASSIC

Yoshikawa Eiji's Sangokushi is the most widely read retelling of the Three Kingdoms saga ever written. Serialized from 1939 to 1943 in the Chūgai Shōgyō Shinpō newspaper, it was read by tens of millions and has remained continuously in print for over eighty years. Where the original Chinese Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical chronicle, Yoshikawa reimagined it as a living novel: his Liu Bei is not a symbol of virtue but a complicated man struggling with ambition and doubt, his Cao Cao is brilliant and terrifying in equal measure, and his Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are as vivid as any characters in modern fiction. It is through Yoshikawa, more than through any other writer, that East Asia's greatest epic entered the mainstream of modern Japanese culture and, from there, inspired the manga, anime, films, and video games that have carried the Three Kingdoms story around the world.

The Peach Garden begins in the last days of the decaying Han Dynasty, when the empire is rotting from within and peasant rebellions are consuming the provinces. In a marketplace, a straw-sandal weaver named Liu Bei meets a fugitive butcher named Zhang Fei, and shortly after, a warrior named Guan Yu who is on the run for killing a corrupt official. The three men swear an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden to live and die together, and to restore justice to the realm, then set out with nothing but their pledge and their weapons to make a place for themselves in a world that is coming apart. From that oath, everything follows: the rise of warlords, the burning of cities, and the first stirrings of the war that will tear China into three kingdoms.

This original Castalia House translation is the first volume of a complete English translation of all ten volumes of Yoshikawa's Sangokushi.

Currently available only in Kindle, you can expect a print version to become available at a later date- thought you may want to subscribe to Castalia's newsletter to ensure that you get told when it happens instead of relying on Amazon.

The Business: The Rest Out Of BlizzCon

I don't care about Hearthstone, Overwatch, or Heroes of the Storm.

Given how both the core Blizzard audience and Blizzard itself treats these games, neither do they. Therefore I haven't paid any attention to their announcements.

Warcraft matters. Starcraft matters. Diablo matters. Those three IPs sit on top--control the Network Effect for--their respective niches (MMO, RTS, ARPG) Everything else does not because it does not (CounterStrike, League of Legends, Magic- those three rule the Effects in those niches).

I implore you--Vidya and Tabletop alike--to stop being fucking retarded faggots about this. You want to know why Blizzard and WOTC signed that deal allying together?

NETWORK EFFECTS, MOTHERFUCKER!

Each recognizes the other as the dominant Network. Only a superior Network can defeat an enemy Network. They both see Fortnite and Roblox as their real enemies, so their alliance allows them to join forces on a long-term plan to defeat those threats by first consuming and assimilating their own also-rans. This is going to be far easier to do on the Tabletop end, and not just with Official DND, as it will be in Vidya but it can be, and will be, done.

Blizzard has AI expertise. WOW is making AI DMs and players. You better believe that Blizzard's expertise will be applied to WOTC's aims.

You Tabletop and Vidya people gainsaying me now are going to be apologizing to me before this is over.

The Business: Diablo 5 Is Not Good

Oh look, a Troon loving faggot bitch is writing this.

This is the Narrative Director for Diablo 5

Pack it up guys, D5 is cooked pic.twitter.com/PImVIEn7v2

— mrphillipchan 🥚🇺🇲 (@mrphillipchan) September 12, 2026

Not a good sign.

Time for the diggers to dig and find something that can get this cunt punted face-first into a ditch and replaced with a proper writer that respects the property.

The Business: WOW Forever Demo Shown

The big WOW streamers were at BlizzCon. They took the chance to stream the demo for Forever.

Xaryu showed the new Racials and Class/Race combos; Horde Skyeborne get Shaman instead of Mage but are otherwise the same.

And this new starting zone feels and looks a lot like the High Elf starting zone that Turtle WOW made mixed with some recolored Night Elf assets.

He didn't mess around much in the new zone before doing the demo dungeon, which is another video of his (as he rerolled Undead Mage for that).

But hey, at least Dwarf Hunters aren't totally subpar compared to other Class/Race combos in Forever. The metagame in Forever is going to be sigificantly different than Classic (every iteration thereof) and Retail.

As this is, something things will remain the same:

• Humans remains the best Paladins
• Night Elves remain best Druids
• Trolls are the best for ANY Horde class with defined burst windows in PVE, and contend in PVP if they can get a Swifty macro attack off.
• Dwarves are always good for treasure-hunting parties

But there's going to be meta shifts. I can already see some of them coming, but more will be sussed out when the Beta drops.

The Business: Expect WOW Forever In Official D&D

Yep, we're still on the BlizzCon beat.

Yes, they're talking a good game.

Yes, they will deliver on what they promised in that panel.

What they didn't tell you is that they are able to do so this fast by taking the code from Turtle WOW, Ascension, Project Epoch, and some other Classic Plus Private Servers when they shut them down and then appropriate it to fit their own Brand Safe version of Classic Plus.

No, unlike Conquest of Azeroth, this will not use all-new classes (I could not die as a Witch Hunter tank by the time I hit 60, and I tried). No, unlike Mysteries of Azeroth, we aren't getting proper High Elves. No, unlike Project Epoch, they aren't putting in low-level transit accelerators (i.e. ground taxis across zones). None of the new zones are those from any PServer and neither are the new dungeons.

But the concepts? Oh yeah. Camping? That's from Ascension. New subzones and their placements? Many are in or near what we saw in those PServers. The remixed classic raids? Totally from Ascension. Hyjal as a zone? Already done in PServers, and as that post-Third War scenario. Adding expansion to existing factions, new Battlegrounds reflecting known flashpoints, etc. are all their versions of what these PServers already proved to work.

It's fitting, after a fashion, that this is Blizzard doing what it was already known for: taking things that work and then polishing them to a Normie-friendly sheen.

And all of it is going to come to Official D&D in the years to come thanks to Universes Beyond. This is the WOW version that is made with Official D&D in mind.

So first you play it virtually, then at your table. Enjoy what Total Memetic Domination looks like.

The Business: Beware New Starcraft (Etc.)

Maybe you shouldn't announce anything years before its purported release.

Pure vibes. Nothing of substance. Just a statement of intent, and I'm certain someone's going to get a talking to about the implications of letting a precious brownoid of uncertain provenance get the cannon fodder treatment instead of Whitey come Monday.

While this isn't a Star Citizen situation, it is a bothersome one nonetheless. RTS is not popular now, so Blizzard can't just C&D some PServer and take their code and with it their R&D. They need to deliver off entirely their own merit, and that's as lacking at Blizzard as it is in other Western AAA studios.

Consider that all of their announcements are either appropriations of others work, or "Break Glass In Case Of Emergency" releases.

Folks wanted this for decades. Only now are they getting it, and some of what's shown here echoes what's coming to Classic and is in Forever.

Furthermore, due to the crossover with Wizards of the Coast, all of this will come to Tabletop in Official D&D sooner or later- the WOW book is already up for sale.

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE NOT SEEING BECAUSE THEY CAN'T COMPREHEND SECOND ORDER EFFECTS!

This makes WOTC's annoucements at GenCon even more paradigm-shattering than I thought.

The Business: Official WOW Classic Plus Confirmed

BlizzCon's going on this weekend.

Blizzard killed Turtle WOW earlier this year, and killed Ascension last weekend (which also killed Project Epoch). That pressaged the arrival of Official Classic Plus, confirmed now.

There's a prelaunch sale going on right now on the official servers with the usual bonuses that are also usable in Retail and/or Classic servers.

This is what would get me paying Blizzard again. Retail is not only too pozzed, but the system requirements are starting to strain my machine until I can upgrade the graphics card. Classic is worthless past Wrath of the Lich King.

And, once again, Network Effects prove their worth. Blizzard OWNs the MMO Network Effect, especially within its own IP. Private Servers are now tolerated insofar as they (a) keep lapsed subscribers in the Network and (b) do the R&D that Blizzard either can't or won't do anymore because holy shit are so much of Forever's offerings exactly what the dead PServers been known for (Undead Paladins was the tell). Let them figure out what works, what new ideas hit, then C&D and shut them down to get their code to incorporate into the official game.

Wizards of the Coast would do that if they could, hence yet another reason for their pivot.