They Who Hide Under Top Hats - March 2025 Retrospective!

 

Foreword

Hey! The first three months of 2025 have officially come to an end and it has been a very eventful three months. Several new updates have been made to the lore and the story of TWHUTH these past few month. Progress has been made on the art side of things and we have even managed to release the 17th Chapter of TWHUTH, which allowed us to increase our total work count past 100,000 words for the first time! 

Progress on the Story of TWHUTH

 By the end of March, we had completed the 17th Chapter of They Who Hide Under Top Hats, titled 'The Ceremony IV' which was released on early April. This chapter, which was the penultimate chapter of the first act of TWHUTH, consisted of more than 16,000 words. It continued the story after the ending of Chapter 16, The Ceremony III, and overall ended in a cliff hanger will is to be resolved in the upcoming Chapter 18, The Ceremony V. 

Diagram 1.1 (Disregard point 1)

Chapter 17 is also the longest chapter of TWHUTH written to date as shown in  Diagram 1.1. It continues the trend of gradually increasing words counts which began in Chapter 13. 

 

Diagram 1.2 (Disregard Point 1)

Chapter 17 is also the most recent entry in The Letter Saga, a single long stretch of story focusing on the perspective of the character of Lucian beginning in Chapter 12, this continuous stretch of  story as so far encompassed  nearly 65,800 words or 264  pages. 

Also, as  demonstrated in  Diagram 1.2, the release of  Chapter  17 on April 4th  also meant that the overall  word count of the TWHUTH series managed  to exceed 100,000  words and reach 107,000  words  total. A rather noteworthy milestone in the journey. This would equate to roughly 428 standard pages worth of story (assuming 250 words of text per page). 

 

 

Progress on the World of TWHUTH

The World Between Paradise

Among the things that have gotten large update within the past three months, the Lore of TWHUTH as received the most development. Possibly the most interesting thing added thus far is the possibility of the Worlds Between Paradise (shown above), dimensions that exist between Paradise (The world of the story) and the Abyss (The endless void outside of the world, kept out by the Mirror). The structure of this cosmic set up is depicted in the image below.

The Abyss

As seen here, the abyss is an infinitely massive space inhabited by unfathomably massive beings and other lifeless debris left over from the days of creation. The Mirror stands as a eternal shield between the abyss and Paradise, which includes the sun, the moon and the stars. Therefore, These unfathomably massive being are left with no other way than to slowly infect the world with themselves, for they can never travel past the Mirror. Paradise, therefore, exists in a bubble floating in an endless void that will never be seen by its inhabitants.

The Ceremony

Among the things that have gotten large update within the past three months, the Lore of TWHUTH as received the most development. The lore of the story depicted in the ongoing series has once again been expanded through the release of Chapter 17. Specifically the Chapter states that incendiary weapons are illegal under the Circulion Code of Law. 

These few months also marked the release of a major lore updates in the form of the post 'The Red Century and the War of the Banners', this lore post discusses the history of the Woodland Folk before the founding of the Circle in the 1st Century AF, also known as the Red Century. It also covers the first half of the Second Century AF with the formation of the Circle, the signing of the Unity Accord and the conflict between the Circle, and two other groups.

The Red Century

The Order of the Crown of Branches was a pro-monarchist organization founded by Canton Carmonite, a pretender to the old throne of the Woodland Folk. The Guildsman Society being basically a meritocratic version of the Circle for the educated. This post would discuss there conflict, The War of the Banners, which would end in the 150s AF, with the Circle being the victor. It is the most detailed piece of lore that has been released thus far, with several very sub-sections such as the Era of Heroes, the Siege of Artsburg and the Campaign of Lies. Hopefully this lore segment would serve as a foundation for future expansion of the world of TWHUTH in the future as there is still more than four hundred years of unfinished lore yet to cover as of the writing of this post.

So far the foundation of the Lore of TWHUTH has more or less been set in stone. Several updates have been made to things such as the Fire Folk and the Children of the Moor with elements such the Woodland Folk also receiving some  substantial development.

The Throne of the Woodland Folk

  The design for the throne room of the Woodland Folk has thus far been designed and the relationship between the Woodland Folk and the King of the Moor has been fleshed out. The mystery as to the origin of the Woodland Folk has also received some clarity, and it may or may not be explored in the actual story moving forward.

 

Overall, there is much potential for future expansion and it will be explored through things such as possible future comics and future spin-off series, such as The Hunters Carrington, a TWHUTH spin-off focusing in the human side of the world, which is currently in development, with possible release following the end of TWHUTH Act 1 in the upcoming Chapter 18. 

Progress on the Art of TWHUTH

Mindreader

The art side of TWHUTH has seen a lot of improvement ever since the start of 2025. throughout the year there have been several new designs made for characters within the story. This includes characters such a Timothy Montgomery, the main villain of the story, Lawrence Dolsy Jr and his companions Tommy Felmont, two characters that will be integral to Anna's storyline moving forward in TWHUTH Act 2.

Timothy Montgomery [Concept]

Aspects of the art style such as shading and the overall design of the character frames have been refined and the organized. 

Overall the art style itself as definitely become more  organized and polished. several designs have also been made is relation to the other lore of the TWHUTH series.

Timothy and Tommy [Concept]

The most successful of which has been the designs of the ancient FireFolk or Fire Puppets. A precursor to the puppets to be shown in an upcoming storyline in TWHUTH Act 2. 

FireFolk [Concept]

On a more personal note, the uniform design for the ancient FireFolk, while not being the final iteration, is my personal favorite outfit in the entire series. But overall there is a high likelihood of the ancient Firefolk appearing in the story moving forward.

 

FireFolk Uniform [Concept]

Overall, the state of TWHUTH as of March 2025 can be though of as very good. There is definitely a lot more art yet to come regarding both the humans and the creatures of the Arylmoor. As mentioned above, the prospect of a possible comic or some other art related project is possible. Any other artistic form such as animation might be considered a possible future goal. However such prospects are so far wildly out of reach.

 

As for my personal view on things, I am quite satisfied with the state of the story as of now. But the thought  of the future is definitely a great motivator. So far the future plans for the story have had no major issues. So in my opinion, it's full steam ahead! I think overall the lore of TWHUTH will remain the most worked-on piece of the story. The world just has too much potential to simply ignore. As for the main series, chapters will continue to come out I will try to

 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, TWHUTH continues to expand in almost all of it's major aspects and it will continue to do so in the coming future. The world of TWHUTH will become more expansive and detailed in the coming years and hopefully the art will also look nicer. Overall, this story means the world to me and to a certain level the entirety of my self-confidence hinges upon it. But don't take that too seriously. To all the readers who have engaged with the story thus far I extend my gratitude for you support (thanks guys!) and I hope you guys will stick around for all the things to come.

 

Thanks and Cheerio for now! :D

 

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